A Kentucky death row inmate is suing for his kosher meals.
After eating a rotisserie chicken from Sam’s Club that wasn’t labeled as kosher, William Harry Meece was kicked out of the prison’s food program, the Courier Journal reported.
Meece, who was sentenced to death for a triple murder in 2006, slaughtering an Adair County family, filed a federal lawsuit, claiming there were many ways to remain kosher that didn’t requiring adhering to labels.
He claimed the strict labeled requirement only applied to Orthodox Jews, and that Reform Jews were able to keep kosher just by avoiding pork and shellfish.
But the state penitentiary stood by its strict standard of proof for its kosher program, pointing out that the specially prepared meals cost 72% more, with the state serving $46,736 worth of kosher meals already this year.
At least 20,000 U.S. inmates pretend to be Jews for kosher meals, like Norman Lee Toler, a white supremacist who supports Adolf Hitler, the newspaper reported.
Meece is demanding he be reinstated into the kosher food program in his lawsuit, arguing that he is not faking his religious obligations.
“If they want to crack down on folks who are not really Jewish, we have no argument with that,” his attorney, Aaron Bentley, told the Courier-Journal. “But Bill Meece is not the gun they should crack down.”
Meece has been forced to eat non-kosher meals after prison officials believed he was conducting a hunger strike.
