Description

James is inside a make-shift prison cell. He sits on a closed toilet bowl at the edge of a striped mattress. As the camera moves closer to him, he begins to brief the audience with a very short history lesson about Charles Francis. Charles Francis (full name: Charles Francis Rumbaugh), was arrested for the murder of Michael Fiorillo, following a jewelry store robbery. While in prison, he attempted to commit suicide twice. He was able to escape with his fellow inmates, although they were subdued by the police shortly after. During his trial, Charles Francis brought in an improvised weapon and threatened to kill his attorney and the judge. He attacked a deputy U.S. Marshal and was critically wounded as a result. On September 11, 1985, Charles was executed via lethal injection and is widely recognized as the first juvenile offender for 21 years to be executed in the U.S. During his final moments, the last meal he requested was a flour corn tortilla and a glass of water. As James began taking the tortilla apart by hand and chewing on it, he continues to speak about the juvenile robber-murderer: Charles Francis has committed several counts of robbery, the earliest of which was executed when he was only 6 years old. James thought it was insane how a 6-yr-old could commit such a crime. According to James Deen, if such a young lad were to attempt to rob him, the first thing he would do is to kick the kid in the face. Charles Francis kept robbing people until he was 17. The more James Deen bit into the flour corn tortilla, the more he realized that the experience itself was weird. He soon contemplates that perhaps Charles’ choice for his last meal is his own way of saying that because of all the crimes he has committed, he deserves to have nothing. It was probably is own method of punishing himself and showing that he feels he does not deserve a last meal. James also suspects that Charles Francis probably ate plain tortillas quite often, seeing as how he knew that drinking water would really come in handy. Halfway through with his tortilla, James, gulps down his glass of water until only about a quarter of the clear, rejuvenating liquid was left. As James continued to eat the remainder of his tortilla, he thanks Charles Francis Rumbaugh for his apology and for the tortilla.