Death Row Inmate Requests Extravagant Last Meal Including Lobster And Steak

An inmate on death row has requested an extravagant last meal including steak and lobster.

Ray Jefferson Cromartie was sentenced to death in 1997 for the murder of store worker Richard Slysz and is due to be executed by lethal injection at 7pm on Wednesday.

Georgia Department of Corrections

Before then though the 52-year-old hopes to dine on a meal comprised of 11 decadent components.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, he has requested: steak, lobster, macaroni and cheese, cube steak, rice and gravy, steak and cheese sandwich, double cheeseburger, fries, a side of ranch dressing, strawberry milkshake and layered cake with white icing.

While many states place a financial cap on an inmate's last meal, the state of Georgia has granted elaborate requests in the past.

Cromartie was convicted of fatally shooting Slysz twice in the head during a robbery in Thomasville, Georgia, in April 1994. Prosecutors said he and an accomplice were unable to open the cash register, instead stealing two crates of beer.

Cromartie has always denied killing Slysz and reiterated his claim to innocence earlier this month, however, the Supreme Court of Georgia declined to halt his execution.

If the Board of Pardons and Paroles decide against postponing his execution at a meeting on Tuesday, then he will become the third inmate executed in the state this year and the 52nd in history. His execution will be the 18th in the country in 2019.

In May, inmate Don Johnson went the opposite way of Cromartie, turning down his last meal altogether and asking that the food be given to the homeless.

Tennessee Department of Corrections

Johnson was sentenced to death after killing his wife, Connie, by stuffing a bin bag down her throat in 1984.

Following his conviction, the 68-year-old resided on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Tennessee until his execution on 16 May.

Prior to the lethal injection, public defender Kelley Henry told Fox News: "Mr. Johnson realises that his $20 allotment will not feed many homeless people.

"His request is that those who have supported him provide a meal to a homeless person."

In a statement, Johnson said: "I truly regret my life and what I became in the process.

"I am and will continue to carry the pain of all the grief that I have caused others to endure.

"It is because of the person that I had became [sic] that I found that I was not a man but a monster and I was determined this would no longer be acceptable and I sought the Lord for I was at the bottom of the barrel and the only way left for me was up."

Topics: Food, US News, crime

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey