US3 min(s) read
Published 16:29 30 Jun 2026 GMT
The first prison inmate to be executed after Florida reinstated the death penalty in 1979 was granted one forbidden luxury that caused such backlash that the death row rules had to be reevaluated.
Following the brutal 1973 murder of Joseph Szymankiewicz in a motel room by John Spenkelink, 30, the killer was sentenced to death.
Spenkelink shot the victim twice and beat his head with a hatchet after the man allegedly forced him at gunpoint to perform a sexual act and play Russian roulette.
However, while Spenkelink awaited his frightful fate on death row at Florida State Prison, guards quickly realised that no one knew how to operate the execution chair as no one had been killed by the state in Florida for 15 years.
Assistant superintendent of Florida State Prison, Richard Dugger, told the Ledger: ''We had to start from scratch and rely on people's memories.''
As the end of Spenkelink’s days grew closer, prison superintendent Dave Brierton had to find a way to calm the understandably erratic prisoner.
The superintendent said: "It was a very difficult time for Spenkelink. It was a very difficult time for me. It was the loss of a human life."
With hopes of taking “the edge off,” Brierton offered the inmate a bottle of Jack Daniel's.
Dugger told UPI: "It seemed like a way to maybe calm the fellow down before he was supposed to go to the chair.
"We talked about tranquillizers, but we didn't feel drugs were appropriate. Maybe you would say alcohol is a drug, I don't know.
"We asked Spenkelink if he wanted a drink, and he said, 'Sure.'"
After the public found out about the last luxury the murderer was offered, they were outraged, arguing that such heinous villains did not deserve such a privilege, and shortly after, the State of Florida's last meal provisions were revised to exclude alcohol.
The last death row prisoner before Spenkelink to be given the luxury of a “nip of brandy” was Manuel Fernandez in 1835. He was also granted a few tokes on a cigar as he took his last breaths.
In 2011, Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was incarcerated over a racially motivated murder, ordered such a massive amount of food that it ultimately led to the prison scrapping the last meal tradition entirely.
The convicted murderer notoriously requested: two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions; a triple bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side; a cheese omelette with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, peppers and jalapenos; a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecue meat with half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas with all the trimmings; a Meat Lovers pizza; one pint of vanilla ice cream; a slab of peanut butter fudge; and three root beers.
But what really rubbed law officials up the wrong way was that they obliged the request, all for Brewer to refuse to eat a single bite.
Outraged by the waste and the manipulation of the system, Texas Senator John Whitmire pressured the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to end the traditional "last meal" privilege.
