Death row inmate to be executed for murdering pastor denied picking last meal

A death row inmate who is set to receive a lethal injection for murdering a pastor at a church will not get to choose a last meal.

Steven Nelson, 37, is scheduled to be executed shortly after 6pm local time for killing 28-year-old Reverend Clint Dobson at NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington in 2011.

Nelson, who has maintained his innocence, was not given the option to choose a specific last meal since death row inmates in Texas are denied that unlike their counterparts in other states.

Texas inmates can only choose from the regular available menu at the Huntsville Unit, according to the state’s department of criminal justice.

Nelson admitted to robbing the church and but insisted he did not kill Dobson, and blamed two accomplices. Nelson claims that he entered the church five minutes after the accomplices left and found Dobson and other victims on the floor.

Prosecutors said Nelson was a lone actor and pointed to Dobson and church secretary Judy Elliott’s DNA on his shoe.

A jury convicted Nelson of murder in 2011.

Dobson had just starting his ministerial career.

‘Clint loved people, and he loved God. He was always excited by the opportunity to unite the two,’ Dobson’s family told USA Today.

‘A believer in social justice, he led a diverse congregation and worked to make sure that everyone felt comfortable and welcome at NorthPointe.’

Nelson’s request for a lie detector test was declined.

Those expected to witness his execution include his spiritual adviser Reverend Jeff Hood and his wife Noa Dubois, whom he wed last year.

Dubois, who met Nelson via an inmate letter-writing program in 2020, said ‘it’s going to be very hard’ living without him.

Nelson’s case put churches at odds.

Dennis Wiles, the pastor of First Baptist Arlington which is the sister church of NorthPointe, after Nelson’s sentencing in 2012 stated: ‘As the Bible teaches us, God has placed the civil authority in our midst so that innocent people can live in freedom without fear and so that guilty offenders can be appropriately punished.’

Hood, who is a death penalty activist, called for clemency for Nelson and organized a protest at the sister church of NorthPointe.

‘If First Baptist Arlington is able to turn Jesus into an executioner, then they are able to rewrite the faith however they choose,’ Hood told USA Today.

Nelson previously told AFP that when ‘you’re waiting to be put to death’ it ‘kind of breaks a little part of you every day… You just don’t want to do nothing’.

Nelson would be the first inmate to be executed in the Lone Star State this year.

Texas lawmakers revoked death row inmates’ right to request a last meal after Lawrence Russell Brewer in 2011 ordered a massive meal and then did not eat it. Brewer ordered a pound of barbecue, two chicken fried steaks, three fajitas, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a meat lover’s pizza, fried okra, a pint of ice cream and a peanut butter fudge slab with crushed peanuts and left it all untouched.

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