James Edward Smith was executed in 1990 for fatally shooting insurance agent Larry Rohus during a 1983 robbery in Houston. Although the murder was disturbing, Smith became most infamous for his bizarre final-meal request: a pile of rhaeakunda dirt used in voodoo rituals. He hoped to use it in a reincarnation ritual, but prison staff refused because it wasn’t an approved food item.
Smith, who had also claimed—but never proven—participation in six ritualistic killings, received a last-minute stay of execution in 1984 and again requested the dirt, but was denied both times. He eventually settled for plain yogurt.
Before his 1990 lethal injection, Smith proclaimed his innocence and refused to beg for his life. His final words were “Hare Krishna.” An assistant attorney general later called the last-minute delays in his case “cruel and unusual punishment.”