Description
In early 2013, Amnesty International Puerto Rico engaged in a campaign to stop an impending execution, the first to occur in over 100 years. Central to this campaign was widespread dissemination of five images of last meals consumed by prisoners on death row who years later were presumed innocent using DNA evidence. These powerful images have captivated audiences with their simplicity and ability to communicate details about these men often overlooked. Details such as cultural, religious, socioeconomic, and even political ideology are all communicated through these men's final food choices. This research uses visual rhetoric to explore the messages communicated through these five images by focusing on the interplay of power structures and rhetorical acts of visuality. Deconstructing power structures such as the prison-industrial complex, bio-politics, and the theatrical aspect of the death penalty, assist in exploring how the death of these prisoners offers insight into the construction of arguments for and against capital punishment. The success of the Last Meal campaign provides many opportunities to expand the theoretical basis of this form of visual rhetoric studies and to convey a model for future activism. This research blends traditional visual rhetoric concepts with contemporary rhetorical theory in order to articulate the role of power and communication to control the public's perceptions. These images function as a reconstruction of the final communicative acts of these condemned men
