I read a short story in a mixed SF anthology many years ago. It was definitley written by a famous SF author (either Bradbury or Asimov) and I am trying to track it down.

The story is about a condemned man on death row whose sentence involves him getting his last meal with a vial of poison (either hemlock, cyanide or arsenic) and he has the choice to drink or not. He chooses not to and smashes the vial agains the wall. The lights go out and he is left to starve to death.

Can anyone identify the story for me?

Could be in the vast "similar, but not Bradbury" category.

Offhand I'd say 10% Bradbury, 90% not Bradbury.

This is what I have done in the past with these story IDs and will do again whenever I have time, (which I MUST tell myself I will...someday) but in the meantime it REALLY helps if people do their own.

1. Go to the Abebooks forums. Make sure you are in the "Booksleuth" forum.
http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom
Post under "Science Fiction." If I were you, I wouldn't crosspost there, although some stories fall into more than one category, i. e. Children's and Science Fiction. This forum houses the most friendly, helpful, useful, knowledgeable folks I've been able to find online.

2. Go to Google Groups (or, if you REALLY MUST, Usenet--same groups in a different form, only Usenet preferers seem to have a less efficient system coupled with a superior, know-it-all attitude.) Start with this one:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.isaac-asimov?lnk=lr
because Asimov is the author most frequently mistaken for Bradbury. Even if the story isn't one of Dr. Asimov's, his fans are polite, helpful, and widely read in other Science Fiction.
When you post there, crosspost to the following groups: rec.arts.books, rec.arts.books.childrens, and rec.arts.sf.written
The worst that will happen is some obnoxious troll, most likely on rec.arts.books.childrens where a number of them have taken up semipermanent residence, who has nothing better to do, will call you rude for crossposting (WHY, I have never determined and refuse to argue it with them.) The best that will happen is you only have to type your question (or copy and paste the one you already typed) once, and it will simultaneously appear in all four groups. If the people who answer just hit "reply" without stripping out the other addresses, all answers will appear in all those groups, so you only have to check one instead of opening up four groups separately. Usenet has a smattering of knowledgeable and helpful folks along with a community of idiots with too much time on their hands, but a lot of people see questions posted there and you may receive semidecent answers.

3. If all these free sources fail, go to: http://www.logan.com/loganberry/stump.html
They are the ultimate authority and if the question can be solved nowhere else, it is well worth the $2.00 they charge to have it posted to their site, where it will stay on the unsolved pages until solved, without getting "bumped down" the way things do in message board format. It will then go permanently to the solved pages in case anyone else ever has the same question.

4. Lastly, most important! When you get your answer, whether it be right away or months or years later, PLEASE come back and post it here! If your post is no longer near the top, you can find it by clicking "Find" at the top of the page and searching for your username or some other unusual term. It would also be nice to mention from what source the answer came. If it's not posted here, it will end up on my "unsolved" list if and when I do get time to go back through all these, and I'll end up doing all of the above (except for paying for other peoples' stumpers, at which I draw the line) unnecessarily! Thanks!

Hope this helps!

Thanks dandelion,

Followed your advice and Abebooks came through:

The story is "A cup of hemlock" by Lee Killough from an anthology titled "100 Great SF Short Stories".

It's GREAT that you found it and THANKS for getting back to us!