Last meals on death row often draw intense interest, especially when they seem to reveal something about an inmate’s beliefs or state of mind. That’s part of why people still talk about the unusual final request made by James Edward Smith, who asked for something no prison kitchen was ever going to serve.
If Smith’s name is unfamiliar, that is probably for the best.
He was a 37-year-old convicted killer who was sentenced to death in Texas for murdering a life insurance company district manager during an armed robbery.
Smith was executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville on June 26, 1990.
What made his story even stranger was his background. Smith had worked as a taxi driver and also as a tarot-card reader in New Orleans, a city long associated with folk magic and Vodou traditions that developed through the African diaspora.
Smith was said to take those beliefs seriously and reportedly continued carrying out rituals right up until his execution.
For what he saw as one final ritual, Smith wanted a specific item at the time of his death, and his meal request reflected that.
Back when condemned inmates were still allowed to choose a final meal, he asked for rhaeakunda dirt, which he believed was used in a voodoo ritual connected to reincarnation and the afterlife.
Within those traditions, the dirt was linked to ideas about death, spiritual transition, and not becoming a restless spirit.
Texas prison authorities refused the request, saying dirt was not something they could provide as a meal.
Speaking to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the time, prison spokesperson David Nunnelee said:
“It’s not food, it’s not sanitary.”
He also said:
“He’ll be offered something off the regular prison menu.”
In the end, that is exactly what happened, with Smith receiving plain yogurt instead.
The newspaper reported that Smith insisted he was not “crazy” and instead described himself as determined. Court records also show that his case had a long, complicated history: his mother won a stay of execution at one point by arguing that he was mentally incompetent, and his execution was delayed before being carried out in 1990.
When the day finally came, Smith reportedly wanted the process to begin quickly. According to reporting at the time, after learning he would not be allowed to eat the dirt he requested, he told prison officials he would haunt the place for 300 years.
Smith’s case also became part of a broader Texas death-row tradition that later disappeared. In September 2011, Texas ended special last-meal requests after another condemned inmate ordered an elaborate meal and refused to eat it, prompting officials to stop the practice altogether. Today, Texas death-row inmates are served the same food as other prisoners.
A grim final claim, to say the least.