Eddyville, KY – 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.
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The Courier-Journal (http://cjky.it/2aauB83) 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.
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Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com
The man deserves a Pidyan Seviyum fund
Let them execute him. Then we won’t have to worry about his rights or his law suit.
Do rabbis also come to him and put tefillin on him?
If he was really born Jewish, he is really Jewish and even if is a murderer that doesn’t exempt him from the other mitzvos, such as keeping kosher or attending Shabbos services. They should check out whether or not he really had a Jewish mother.
Sad it takes the Prison to make the Jews eat kosher. Sad they are not afraid of th one above
If he is Jewish or not that I don’t know but I think his victims were Jews.
He’s fighting for the right to keep “reform kosher,” but there is no such thing even according to the reform movement. They just don’t serve shellfish, pork, or meat and milk at their public functions, but they allow private members to eat whatever they want.
He seems to have no regrets and no remorse based on the smug look on him.
Apparently, he takes kashrus more seriously than the sixth commandment. That seems a bit backwards.