Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Fritz Schlottman, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Corrections, talks about the scheduled execution of Daryl Mack from the state execution chamber Tuesday morning.
Condemned prisoner Daryl Mack's last meal will be a simple sample of the kind of fast food he hasn't had access to in prison.
Unlike some previous death row inmates who have had elaborate final dinners, Mack asked for a filet-of-fish sandwich with a little lettuce and tartar sauce, french fries and a lemon-lime soft drink.
Deputy Director of Corrections Fritz Schlottman said the meal will be prepared by the prison culinary staff, not ordered from a fast-food restaurant.
Mack, 47, still could appeal his execution. His death is scheduled for tonight at 9.
In case he changes his mind at the last minute, there is a phone in the death chamber area of Nevada State Prison on Fifth Street to contact the governor. Prison Medical Director Dr. Bruce Bannister will be on hand to resuscitate Mack if necessary.
Unless he changes his mind, Mack will be the 12th man executed in Nevada since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976. But he will be the first black man, and the first to be executed for a conviction based solely on DNA evidence.
Mack, who was sentenced to death for the 1988 rape and murder of a Reno woman, was described Tuesday by Schlottman as "pretty resigned at this point" to not seeking a last-minute stay.
He was serving a no-parole life term in prison for murdering Kim Parks in 1994 in a Reno motel when he was linked through DNA evidence to the murder of Betty Jane May, 55, and convicted. A three-judge panel sentenced him to death in 2002.
Schlottman said Mack was calm Tuesday except when prison officials asked him what to do with his personal property. He said that subject made him "a little grumpy."
Mack told a Washoe County District Judge he didn't want to pursue further appeals because he'd rather die than live the rest of his life in prison.
Mack's mother, Viola Mack, tried to block the execution arguing her son is delusional and not competent to decide whether to give up his appeals. The Nevada Supreme Court rejected that argument in February.
The condemned inmate also would be the 11th "volunteer," out of a dozen men executed here since 1976, to not pursue available appeals that would stop his lethal injection.
Dan Greco, a chief deputy Washoe County district attorney who oversaw Mack's prosecution, has said the death penalty is clearly warranted in Mack's case. He terms Mack "a perfect example of the worst of the worst."
May's children, Charles May, 48, of Reno, Denise Notinelli, 44, of Los Angeles, and Alana Coy, 42, of Kentucky, all plan to witness Mack's execution. Charles May says the execution is "long overdue" and the family wants to see justice carried out.
Death penalty foes hope Mack will change his mind and seek a stay. They plan a vigil outside the prison gates, starting about two hours before the scheduled execution.
Mack will first get an overdose of sodium thiopental, a "downer" that will make him unconscious and can cause death. Another drug, pancuroniam bromide, stops breathing by paralyzing the lungs, and a third, potassium chloride, stops the heart.
The last execution in Nevada was in August 2004 when Terry Jess Dennis was put to death for strangling a woman in a Reno motel in 1999.
Candlelight vigil
WHO The Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, a statewide organization whose ultimate goal is the abolition of the death penalty in Nevada
WHAT: A candlelight vigil in protest of Daryl Mack's scheduled execution
WHEN: 7 p.m. tonight
WHERE: Opposite the entrance of the Nevada State Prison, 3301 E. Fifth St., Carson City