A Jewish inmate on Kentucky’s death row is suing in federal court, saying he was unfairly removed from a kosher meals program for eating an unlabeled meal of rotisserie chicken.
The Courier-Journal reports that William Harry Meece’s chicken dinner violated a rule requiring people getting special meals to strictly adhere to their religious diets. That’s because Kosher meals cost 72 percent more to prepare.
The Jewish Prisoner Services International ministry estimates that at least 20,000 inmates nationwide falsely identify as Jewish to get these meals.
Kentucky’s Kosher Diet Participation Agreement, adopted in 2008 to settle another lawsuit, says, “I will not purchase, possess or consume any food items that are not permitted under my religious diet.”
But Meece says he was born Jewish, and was a dues-paying member of a Reformed Jewish synagogue in Lexington. His lawsuit says that while Orthodox Jews are limited to food stamped “kosher,” Reformed Jews can merely avoid pork and shellfish and maintain other dietary restrictions.
The Department of Corrections declined to comment to the newspaper about the lawsuit.
Meece has sued over his religious rights before. He wanted to worship in the prison chapel on Saturday – the Jewish Sabbath – rather than on Sunday. The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that he can pray in his cell instead.
Meece awaits execution for killing three members of an Adair County family, Joseph and Elizabeth Wellnitz and their 20-year-old son Dennis. Prosecutors said Meece and their surviving daughter, Meg Wellnitz Appleton, conspired to kill them and split the inheritance.
Appleton pleaded guilty, got a life sentence and killed herself in prison in 2014. Meece says he’s innocent.
(AP)
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17 Responses
So why can’t he get the Reform kosher meals?
Do Reform rules allow murder? (Maybe he used his left hand.)
What does he need Kosher meals for? He can just avoid pork and shellfish!
It is interesting to see the hatred Orthodox people have for Jews that are not Orthodox.
Git Meshige- It’s interesting that you see hatred here. The only hate I see is coming from you!
The previous poster is merely commenting on the inmates clear hypocrisy. We dont hate the non orthodox, however there is nothing wrong with hating what the movement stands for and what it represents, specifically a corruption and bastardization of the Torah!
Even one less traife meal is a זכות for his sorry נשמה. The fact that he wants kosher is even an עשיית תשובה. May he be זוכה to תשובה שלימה.
A Jew is a Jew as long as he lives and should be given 100% kosher food, as well as a pair of tefillin and tzitzis with a Kitzur Shulachan Aruch in the language he speaks to teach him Jewish laws.
Yes it’s true one thing has nothing to do with the other and he is mechuyav to eat kosher. I was just trying to understands his logic. If he can fulfill his supposed religious dictates by merely avoiding pork and shellfish why is he suing for full fledged kosher meals?
After murdering three people, then he wants kosher food? I doubt if he kept kosher before his incarceration. I speak from personal experience having done chaplin visits to incarcerated Jews. Most were “working the system”. Their connection many times to anything Torah observant prior to incarceration was either nonexistent or minimal. Now when put in jail for not adhering to the law of the land, and the Torah, now they demand kosher food. I’ve seen it many times. Sorry, if you did something so heinous, as this guy did, I don’t see the obligation to ” serve ” his religious “needs”. It’s a scam.
@yitzyk The article ends “Meece says he’s innocent”.
Try telling him to keep the mitzva that obligate him to do something always interesting how interested they become in religion only when it can be used to stir up trouble
#2, those in greenhouses shouldn’t be throwing stones. Does the Torah allow stealing , molestation, rape, abuse, corruption? These are just a few crimes plenty of ” Orthodox” Jews have been convicted of. Yes, there is hatred to the non Orthodox as is there is hatred by the Non orthodox to the Orthodox. I am not condoning one way or the other all I am saying is when a frum jew who is in jail for crimes they have committed, to the Orthodox, they have a right to request Kosher food. Yet when a freier asks for it, that suddenly becomes problematic. Double standard as usual
Regarding the comment that Meece says he’s innocent. I was amazed when I visited inmates, everyone was innocent. The jails are filled with all these innocent people. Meece must also be innocent, he said so.
Neturei Karta?
I’m curios what the leader of the congregation he paid dues to has to say about this.
Such venomous comments from so many! Sad that our מידה of רחמנות which we ירש’ן from אברהם אבינו and אהבת ישראל seem so absent!
did anyone think that perhaps people do teshuva when they have time to sit and think about what they have done?
this does not take away from the fact that he allegedly committed a crime, however everyone is entitled to do teshuva.
#11, Glass houses, not green houses.