The Last Supper: Stacey Lawton
Stacey Lawton was two days into a crime spree when he shot and killed 47-year-old Dennis Price on Christmas eve of 1992. Lawton, along with his accomplices, had been in the process of breaking into Price’s truck. When Price interrupted the robbery Lawton shot him in the chest with a shotgun, and fled the scene. Price died in the arms of his 18-year-old daughter while she was trying to give him CPR.
Lawton was executed by lethal injection on November 14, 2000. He maintained his innocence even up until the very end, claiming that it was his accomplice who had fired the gun. Strapped to the gurney, with the needle already in his arm, Lawton addressed Price’s daughter, saying “I didn’t kill your father. I mean, I know how it look, but I didn’t do it.” He repeated this mantra several more times, even as the drugs began taking effect.
Stacey Lawton’s final meal was a jar of dill pickles.
Stacey Lawton
Strange Requests and Messages in Meals
I’ve been doing this “Last Suppers” project for long enough now that I seldom stumble across a request that genuinely surprises me.
Lawton’s request surprised me.
What’s unusual about “a jar of pickles” as a last meal is that it seems to sit right on the boundary between those peculiar requests (like Smith’s dirt or Buell’s olive) that are obviously intended as a political statement, and those peculiar requests (like McVeigh’s ice cream or Mitchell’s Jolly Ranchers) that are obviously just comfort foods. The idea of wanting to consume nothing other than an entire jar of pickles for a final meal initially seemed so odd to me that I felt like I needed to rationalize it as some kind of cryptic message. But, if this was Lawton’s intention, the meaning of this statement is utterly lost on me.
It is just as likely, of course, that Lawton’s request meant nothing.
Maybe he just really liked pickles?
After struggling with Lawton’s story for some time I eventually opted for a literal interpretation, presenting his pickles as just what they are. The colour palette is dominated by green, a very unusual choice in my body of work. Usually green is associated with new life (as in the emergence of greenery in spring) or with hope (as in The Great Gatsby’s famous green light). Alongside Lawton’s pickles I have added a few wilting stems and flowers. Although these are very much dead, they are not quite yet brown. The flowers seem to me to be clinging feebly to their green tones, echoing Lawton’s insistence of his own innocence.