A quote from Cool Hand Luke, a 5,000 calorie meal & then he was executed..

Defiant last words of grinning murderer

A GRINNING death row inmate quoted the Paul Newman movie Cool Hand Luke before his execution by lethal injection.

JW Ledford Junior said, “What we have here is a failure to communicate” – a nod to a classic line from the 1967 prison film. The killer, who also told his executioners to “kiss my white trash a**”, had earlier enjoyed a 5,000-calorie last meal including filet mignon, pork chops and pecan pie. Ledford smiled while strapped to a gurney at the state prison in Jackson, Georgia, early yesterday. Asked if he had any last words, he replied: “What we have here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. I am not the failure. You are the failure to communicate.” Ledford added: “You can kiss my white trash a**.” During Cool Hand Luke the warden, played by Strother Martin, tells Paul Newman’s lead character: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” Luke repeats the line at the end when he is cornered by police after escaping.

MURDER

Hours before Ledford’s death, the US Supreme Court rejected his lawyers’ application for a stay of execution. He had also previously had his request to be killed by firing squad turned down. Ledford was given the death penalty for the knife murder and robbery of Dr Harry Buchanan Johnston Junior in Murray County, Georgia, in January 1992. He also threatened the victim’s wife and tied her up before stealing cash, guns and a truck. In a statement yesterday Georgia’s Office of the Attorney General said: “The lawfully ordered execution of JW Ledford Jr was carried out today at 1.17am at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center in Jackson, Georgia. “The sentence was carried out after the Supreme Court denied Ledford’s request for a stay of execution.”

THEN Prisoner at time of arrest in 1992 DEATH BED Gurney used for lethal injection MUGSHOT Prison photo of JW Ledford Jr PRISONER Newman in Cool Hand Luke