A 74-year-old Florida death row inmate has become the oldest person executed in the state's modern history after being put to death for the 1992 murder of his wife.

Per AP News, Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10PM on Thursday, June 25, following a lethal injection carried out at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to death for fatally stabbing his wife, Karen Spencer, in January 1992.

Before the execution, Spencer was asked if he had any final words. He replied: “Sorry, sorry to the family. Into thy hands I commit my spirit and my soul. I’m on my way, Lord. I’m on my way. Amen."

His final meal before execution

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Spencer's final meal consisted of pizza, French fries and a milkshake.

Death row inmates in Florida are permitted to request one final meal before their execution, although the state places a $40 limit on the order and requires the food to be purchased locally.

Florida's policy differs from Texas, where officials ended the practice of allowing inmates to choose their last meal in 2011. The decision followed the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer. Per NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, he requested an enormous meal that included two chicken fried steaks, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pound of barbecue and a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, only to refuse to eat any of it.

Dusty Ray Spencer. Credit: Florida Department of Corrections

Spencer's case and sentencing

Spencer was first arrested after choking his wife and threatening to kill her in December 1991. While in jail, he called her and said he would "finish what he started" once he was released.

After fatally stabbing Karen Spencer in January 1992, he was sentenced to death later that year. However, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing two years later after ruling the trial court had "mishandled evaluating aggravating and mitigating circumstances." He was resentenced to death the following year.

Although Spencer became the oldest inmate executed in Florida's modern history, he was not the oldest person executed in the United States during the modern era. That distinction belongs to Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who was 83 when he was executed in Alabama in 2018 for the 1989 letter bomb murders of Robert S. Vance and civil rights attorney Robert E. Robinson.

Another 74-year-old Florida death row inmate, Dennis Sochor, is also scheduled to be executed this year. Sochor was convicted of killing a woman he had known for only a few hours after a New Year's Eve party in 1982.

In the United States, inmates spend an average of 20 years on death row before execution because of legal challenges, high costs and difficulties in obtaining execution drugs.

Featured image credit: Florida Department of Corrections

The final meal for a US death row inmate in the 1990s has left many scratching their heads, decades on from his execution.

It's the 2020s, and the death penalty is less common than ever before, with over half of the world's nations choosing to abolish the punishment.

Just a quarter of nations continue to execute prisoners for their crimes, though it is usually only those who commit the worst of crimes who are sentenced to death.

As gruesome as the methods can be, those on death row are usually given one final choice before their life ends.

Many are interested in what prisoners choose for their final meals, with some inmates choosing specially prepared meals that may have been a favorite when they were on the outside.

But on occasion, there are some meal choices which can leave many confused, and this might be the most peculiar of them all.

James Edward Smith didn't request a type of food for his final meal. Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice

James Edward Smith's final meal

Smith was executed by lethal injection for murder at the age of 37, back in April 1990.

The US citizen was found guilty of fatally shooting insurance executive Larry D. Rohus during a robbery of a second-floor cashier's office, located near the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, on March 7, 1983.

Smith initially requested a lump of rhaeakunda dirt for his final meal, an odd ask at first, until it was found that this specific dirt was used in voodoo rituals.

The inmate thought it may help him in reincarnation, but the Texas Department of Criminal Justice denied Smith's request.

In the end, Smith settled for a cup of yoghurt.

Despite his execution being scheduled for 1988, the date was pushed back after his mom's lawyers appealed for a stay of execution.

As for his trial, Smith tried to escape during the jury selection process, running from the courthouse, though he would be captured a few blocks away before being put back into custody.

He would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, with his appeals proving unsuccessful as the sentence was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1987.

Final meals are becoming less common. Credit: Mike Simons/Getty

Some states have abolished final meals

As reported by AP News, Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10PM on Thursday, June 25, following a lethal injection carried out at Florida State Prison near Starke.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Spencer's final meal consisted of pizza, French fries and a milkshake.

He had been sentenced to death for fatally stabbing his wife, Karen Spencer, in January 1992.

Death row inmates in Florida are permitted to request one final meal before their execution, although the state places a $40 limit on the order and requires the food to be purchased locally.

Florida's policy differs from Texas, where officials ended the practice of allowing inmates to choose their last meal in 2011. The decision followed the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer.

Per NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, he requested an enormous meal that included two chicken fried steaks, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pound of barbecue and a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, only to refuse to eat any of it.

Featured image credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice

People have always had a morbid fascination with death row inmates and what they select as their final meals.

Perhaps it's the curiosity of seeing what somebody actually chooses to eat as their final meal on Earth or maybe it's just another glimpse into the minds of the nation's most feared criminals.

Either way, final meals continue to be an eerie tradition to this day.

From one inmate's ludicrous final feast to Texas abolishing all inmate final meal requests after one guy overstepped the mark - there are many fascinating stories to tell.

But perhaps the most bizarre of all is that of Victor Harry Feguer - the convicted killer who ate only a single olive as his final meal.

When he was just 28 years old, Feguer was executed by hanging in 1963.

The Michigan-born killed had been in Iowa three years prior when he started panning the local phone directory for physicians.

After landing on the number of Dr. Edward Bartels, Feguer told the doctor that he was with a woman who was in urgent need of medical attention. And so, Dr. Feguer rushed to the given location.

Sadly, it was all a ruse - and Feguer swiftly kidnapped the 34-year-old doctor.

Dr Bartel was killed in Illinois with a single gunshot to the head - his body dumped in a cornfield.

Just days later, the FBI received a tip-off from a man who Feguer had attempted to sell a car to without the correct paperwork. The information led to Feguer's arrest.

Authorities summarized that Feguer had killed the doctor in an effort to steal any drugs the physician may have been carrying to help treat sick patients. Despite repeatedly professing his innocence, he was sentenced to death.

The story took an unexpected political turn when Feguer successfully lodged an appeal that could have seen President John F. Kennedy secure his life, per the LA Times.

However, JFK reportedly found the crime "so brutal" that the appeal was denied.

"Taking all factors into account, it is my decision that the petition should be and is hereby denied," the President wrote in a memo to Feguer.

When his three years behind bars coming to an end, it was time for Feguer to submit his final meal request.

A single olive - with the pit included.

The New York Daily News reports that Feguer had told guards that - when he was dead and buried - he had hoped that an olive tree would grow where he lay. An olive tree is renowned for being a symbol of peace.

Photographer Henry Hargreaves - who recreated a number of famous last meals for a photo collection called No Seconds - later told CBS News: "It's just such a polarising image.

"We think about last meals, and is it something that's going to be totally gluttonous, and then he just has a single olive."

"You know, it's so simple, beautiful, and kind of final. It's like a full stop at the end of his life."

Prison records state that Feguer grew consistently "quiet" as the days to his execution ticked away.

On the day before he died, he was said to be "cooperative and resigned" - with officers adding that he was "very calm" on the morning of his execution.

After his execution, the olive pit was reportedly found inside Feguer's suit pocket - adding truth to his notion that he wished for a tree to grow after his death.

Featured image credit: Iowa Police

If you could have absolutely anything as your last meal on this mortal plane, what would it be? Personally, as a non-meat-eater, I think I'd go for the best lab-grown steak money could buy, accompanied by an uncomfortably large portion of fries and onion rings (all smothered in cheese and peppercorn sauce, of course), and then rounded off with a literal pile of tiramisu, banoffee pie, and chocolate lava cake.

Because if I'm going to go out anyway, I might as well go out on a meal that could kill me in its own right.

Last meal requests are a real thing, of course - albeit very few of them are ever as extravagant as my insane concoction. What with various restrictions and regulations, death row inmates who are entitled to last meals cannot ask for anything too zany.

And yet, this one guy managed to push the boat out pretty far with his menu order.

Keith Leroy Tharpe, who was due to be executed last September for the 1991 murder of Jacquelin Freeman, put in a particularly extreme request for his last meal - the details of which have recently been released. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, "Tharpe requested a last meal of three spicy chicken breasts, roast beef sandwich with sauce, fish sandwich, tater logs, onion rings, apple pie, and a vanilla milkshake."

Because of Georgia's comparatively lax rules on last meal requests, Tharpe's request was granted - but not every state is quite so generous. Florida prisons, for example, stipulate a $40 budget for inmates' final meals. Texas, by contrast, has no limit on the cost of a meal; however, anything an inmate orders must be prepared on-site in the prison.

And yet, even with all the strict guidelines that must be followed, some former death row inmates managed to have even stranger last meals.

Steven Woods, who was executed for a double homicide in Texas in 2011, consumed a mighty feast for his final meal. He chowed down on a large pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two pounds of bacon, five chicken fried steaks, two bacon hamburgers, a dozen garlic bread sticks, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer, sweet tea, and two pints of ice cream.

Unsurprisingly, Texas implemented their 'no external food' rule shortly after this.

Even more extravagant than that, however, was Robert Dale Conklin's last meal in 2005. The murderer was granted his final request of bacon-wrapped filet mignon, garlic shrimp, a baked potato with butter, sour cream, chives and bacon, corn on the cob, asparagus, bread and butter, goats cheese, a whole melon, some apple pie, iced tea, and vanilla ice cream.

Perhaps the weirdest request of all, though, was that of James Edward Smith. In 1990, he asked for a "lump of dirt." Unfortunately for him, the prison wouldn't allow it, so he settled for a yoghurt instead.

So, while Tharpe's recent request may have been particularly extra (seriously, who could stomach all those different types of food in one sitting), it's certainly not the strangest we've ever heard of. At the time of writing, Tharpe is still on death row, as his execution was stayed at the last minute.

A South Carolina death row inmate's final meal before being executed by firing squad has been revealed.

Stephen Bryant, a 44-year-old convicted killer, was put to death on Friday (November 14), marking the state’s third use of the controversial method this year alone.

Bryant was pronounced dead at 6:05PM after three prison officers, each armed with live ammunition, opened fire.

He made no final statement and showed no emotion as he looked at the witnesses behind bulletproof glass. Seconds later, shots rang out, and the red bullseye target pinned to his chest flew forward.

Onlookers shared that he took a few shallow breaths before a final spasm, and a doctor confirmed his death a little over a minute later.

Final Meal Before Execution

Bryant becomes the 50th person executed in South Carolina since the state reinstated the death penalty four decades ago and the 43rd executed in the US this year.

Before facing the firing squad, he requested a final meal: spicy mixed seafood stir-fry, fried fish over rice, egg rolls, stuffed shrimp, two candy bars, and German chocolate cake, per The New York Post.

His attorney, Bo King, revealed harrowing details about Bryant’s life, pointing to a genetic disorder, brain damage caused by his mother’s substance abuse, and years of physical and sexual abuse from relatives.

“Tonight, South Carolina gave Mr Bryant his final wounds in a lifetime of suffering,” King said in a statement after the execution.

“Mr Bryant’s impairments left him unable to endure the tormenting memories of his childhood. When these traumas pushed him to mental collapse, he pleaded for professional help. He was refused care by our broken mental health system because he could not afford the fee of $75," they added.

The lawyer described the death row inmate as a man who had found a kind of peace before his death. “We will remember his unlikely friendships, his fierce protectiveness, and his love for nature, the water, and the world.”

South Carolina’s governor denied clemency, and the state’s supreme court rejected appeals claiming the original sentencing had failed to properly consider Bryant’s brain damage.

The attorney general’s office painted a different picture, calling Bryant “methodical” and “cunning,” citing the “gratuitous infliction of horror” in his crimes.

Prosecutors said the prisoner tortured one victim, Willard “TJ” Tietjen, burning his eyes with cigarettes and smearing taunting messages in blood, AP News reported.

He also fatally shot two other men, one before and one after Tietjen, by pulling over to let them urinate before shooting them in the back.

Growing Controversy Around The Firing Squad

Bryant’s execution came as South Carolina ramped up its use of capital punishment after a 13-year hiatus caused by the inability to obtain lethal injection drugs.

Since resuming executions in 2024, the state has executed seven inmates: four by lethal injection and three by firing squad.

The method has sparked renewed national outrage. Human rights groups have slammed it as “barbaric,” while state officials defend it as quick and humane.

The Rev. Hillary Taylor of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty condemned the choice inmates are now forced to make.

“Do you choose being poisoned to death in a way that is akin to waterboarding, do you get cooked to death by electrocution, or do you get your heart blown out of your chest by a firing squad?” she said.

South Carolina now joins Utah as the only two states to have executed three people by firing squad in the modern era. Idaho is preparing to make it its primary method, while the option remains legal in Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Featured image credit: Marcia Straub / Getty