Alton Coleman’s hunger did not stop at murder. His ‘last supper’ was one of the largest-ever recorded for a condemned man. On 25 April 2002, he sat down for his final dinner.
He ordered filet mignon, sautéed mushrooms, sweet potato pie (with whipped cream), butter pecan ice cream, biscuits with brown gravy, broccoli with cheese, French fries, cherry coke, a green lettuce salad with French dressing, collard greens, onion rings, fried chicken breast and corn bread. The filet mignon was unavailable so the prison kitchen served New York strip steak.
Coleman slept poorly the night before his execution. “I don’t know whether it was from indigestion or nervousness,” said the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Reginald Wilkinson.
By the morning of his execution, Coleman’s appetite had…