The last meal choices for two death row inmates due to be executed this week have been disclosed before a rare day of three executions in three different states.
Thursday, August 13, is scheduled to bring executions in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Alabama. According to reports, it will be only the second time in US history that three executions have been set for the same day across three states, with the first occurrence on January 7, 2010.
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, who has spent nearly 20 years on death row, is set to be executed for the 2003 murder of his wife, Olimpia Fisher. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections said his final meal is scheduled for 5pm on August 12, ahead of a lethal injection the next day.
In Oklahoma, inmates on death row are given a $25 budget for a final meal, with any request needing the prison warden’s approval. Kay Thompson, chief of communications for the department, said Cuesta-Rodriguez requested a Cuban sandwich, Rocky Road ice cream, doughnuts, and a bottle of water.
Cuesta-Rodriguez was sentenced to death after shooting Fisher, 33, in the eyes during an argument. Fisher’s daughter, Katya Wallis, witnessed the shooting when she was 18 and five months pregnant.
Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines is also due to be executed in Tennessee on Thursday for the 1985 murder of motel housekeeper Katherine Jenkins.
Prosecutors said the 66-year-old stabbed 54-year-old Jenkins multiple times while robbing the motel and took about $100 during the attack.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections said Hines chose fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea for his final meal.
Now 70, Cuesta-Rodriguez spoke about his remorse while reading from a statement during a hearing.
“I know that nothing I say will be enough to erase your pain, to offer some kind of comfort or get her back,” he noted.
“But I do want to tell you that I regret it and I am truly remorseful from the bottom of my heart. My time has come, and I want to leave, and I want to leave in peace. And if I am forgiven some day, well, I will be forgiven. But it’s time for me to pay for what I did.”
At the clemency hearing, Wallis said Cuesta-Rodriguez could have helped her mother but instead chose to shoot her again.
Wallis said, “Carlos chose to take my mother’s life. He didn’t just hurt her. He hurt all of us who knew her, who loved her, who needed her. He took a great person who did not deserve to die.”
Cuesta-Rodriguez and Hines are not the only inmates scheduled to die on August 13.
Jeremy Williams, 41, is also scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Alabama on Thursday for the 2021 rape and murder of 5-year-old Kamarie Holland. Williams pleaded guilty to four counts of capital murder and waived his right to appeal, requesting the speedy execution. His final meal request has not been publicly detailed.
A Cornell University study found that fried food is the most common type of final meal requested by death row inmates.
Whether it is seafood, chicken, or fries, fast food regularly appears in those requests. Meals from Kentucky Fried Chicken or Burger King, along with milkshakes and ice cream, are also common, while alcohol is generally banned, making soda a frequent drink choice.
Victor Feguer kidnapped and killed Dr Edward Bartels in July 1960. Bartels’ body was later found in an Illinois cornfield with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Feguer was convicted of federal kidnapping and murder and was hanged at the Iowa State Penitentiary on March 15, 1963.
For his last meal, the 27-year-old requested a single olive with the pit still inside. He reportedly told guards that he hoped an olive tree would grow from his grave, ‘as a sign of peace’.
John Wayne Gacy, one of the most infamous serial killers in US history, was convicted in 1980 after murdering at least 33 boys and young men during the 1970s.
He was executed by lethal injection at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois on May 10, 1994, at the age of 52.
Gacy chose a bucket of KFC original recipe chicken, French fries, 12 deep-fried shrimp, and a pound of strawberries for his final meal. In a grim twist, he had previously managed several KFC restaurants owned by his father-in-law.
Stephen Smith was convicted of fatally shooting Larry Don Rohus while robbing an office building in Houston, Texas, in 1983.
He was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit on June 26, 1990.
For his final meal, Smith asked for a lump of rhaeakunda dirt as part of a voodoo ritual he practiced and believed would help his journey into reincarnation.
That request was denied, and the 37-year-old was given plain yoghurt instead.
Timothy McVeigh was convicted of conspiracy, using a weapon of mass destruction, and destruction by explosives resulting in death for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
He was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Indiana on June 11, 2001.
McVeigh, 33, ate two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream as his final meal.
Lawrence Russell Brewer, a white supremacist, was convicted alongside two other men for the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr.
Brewer was 44 when he was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Texas on September 21, 2011.