Tuesday, December 09, 2003

A startling development in Texas. From the Dallas Morning News (reg. req.)...

The highlights....

State prison agency pulls plug on last-meal Web site
Public appetite for data superseded by concerns about taste, officials say

By DIANE JENNINGS / The Dallas Morning News

In the end – the very end – it comes down to a matter of taste.

After years of posting the last meals of condemned inmates for public perusal, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has deleted that information from its Web site.

The elimination of the popular page was part of a redesign to be launched this week, said department spokeswoman Michelle Lyons, but the decision to remove the information was also partly in response to objections.

"We had gotten some complaints from people who thought it was in poor taste," Ms. Lyons said.

The decision by the department's "executive administration" makes life difficult for Ms. Lyons, who fields media requests, because questions about prisoners' last meals are common.

"The reason we had it on the Web site to begin with was because that was the No. 1 inquiry from the public," she said. "So really, we can't win."


Gee, a website that posted all these last meals in one place might become pretty popular place. Hmmmmm, I wonder if there is one out there....