Dalrymple explains his opposition to capital punishment here, but I’ll leave you to read the logic and share the colorful intro:

Apart from pulp novels, airport bookshops often have an eccentric selection of books. A few years ago, for example, in the bookshop in the airport nearest my English home, I found a volume devoted to the last meals requested by men about to be executed in Texas. I suppose this was to persuade passengers that there were worse meals in life than those offered by the airlines.

To my lasting regret I did not buy the book and have not found it since. It was both horrifying and fascinating. I am ashamed to say that what really horrified me were not the crimes of the condemned men but their choices of a last meal: If I remember right, they all wanted to go out on a full stomach of junk food and industrially produced sweet drinks.