The Last Meal: is justice being served?

If you were on death row, what would you choose as your last meal? It seems a morbid question I know but I find it strangely compelling; this simple daily ritual, placed under horrific circumstances takes on a whole new level of meaning and it's something I probably never would have considered had I not stumbled across the Last Meals Project. In the USA prisoners awaiting execution are granted a last meal, these details are made public record. Photographer Jonathon Kambouris has taken this information, combined with photos of the convicted killers and created the slightly controversial and extremely provocative Last Meals Project (eventually to be turned into a book). In the intro on the website, Kambouris explains:

"Justice may not always be served because the innocent can be proved guilty and the guilty can be proved innocent. Choosing the last meal is a significant ritual because the accuracy and validity of this choice is the only answer one can ultimately accept. This series visually documents the face and last meal of a convicted killer and is without question, honest and true."

Last Meals Project, Jonathon Kambouris (www.lastmealsproject.com)

After reading the intro, a slightly morbid curiosity got the better of me and I began clicking through the pages of the site. As I viewed each of the now deceased prisoners and contemplated the connotations of their last choice on this earth, the project began to take on a much greater meaning. By personifying these individuals through their final meal choice, Kambouris moved me to consider the bigger issue. With each eerie photograph I was not only plagued by questions of "guilty or innocent?" but more broadly "is taking another person's life ever justified?". I know there are some seriously ill people out there who have committed unspeakable crimes but does/would taking their lives undo what they have done?

It has been 44 years since capital punishment was carried out for the final time in Australia, however the legislation still exists and is being exercised in many countries (eg. America, China, Singapore, Japan). As a result there are currently three Australian citizens who have been sentenced and are now on death row in China and Indonesia. Last year 23 countries carried out executions under capital punishment legislation and in Iran and Somalia this also included juveniles offenders. With many countries withholding the number of executions carried out it is impossible to attain clear figures on the lives that have been taken under this law but estimates for 2010 are in the thousands.

I am probably not in a position to speak on such an issue because I have never personally experienced someone close to me becoming the victim of a senseless crime and perhaps I would feel very differently if I had, but I can't help but think of a quote by Ghandi:

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - Mahatma Ghandi