Tennessee prison officials refuse to fulfill the last wish of condemned man, who requested one pizza to be given to a homeless person.
A convicted murderer put to death in Tennessee this week got his last meal wish after he died.
Philip Workman was put to death Wednesday by lethal injection in Tennessee. He was given a death penalty for killing a police officer, Lt. Oliver, after he tried to rob a Wendy’s fast food restaurant. He claimed his gun went off accidentally and killed a police officer. Before his death he was offered a final meal of his choice, which is usually offered to condemned prisoners, but he turned it down. Instead he requested the prison officials to give a vegetarian pizza to a homeless person. The $20 (£10) budget for his “special meal request” went unspent. The Prison officials didn’t meet his wish and refused to send out any pizza.
Some were outraged by this gesture and asked why the Prison officials didn’t fulfill his request. So others like
Donna Spangler, 55 stepped in and send out pizzas to the homeless shelters and raised more than $1,200. One of the biggest homeless shelters in the city, Nashville’s Union Rescue Mission received more than 150 vegetarian pizzas. Other donor, mostly anonymous also delivered about 40 pizzas to other shelters in the Tennessee area. In Minnesota, after listening to this news in the radio station also ordered pizzas and sent to another organization for troubled youngsters.
Dorinda Carter, spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction, said, "Taxes are to be spent on specific things for the care of the inmates."
However Dorinda acknowledged that there was no regulation against carrying the last wishes of Workman’s request.
An official at the homeless shelter mission said the pizzas were enjoyed greatly by its residents.
Tennessee Prison could have sent one Pizza to a homeless person and they made a big fuss about it, but thanks to others who stepped in and fulfilled Workman’s wishes.
