Bizarre reason death row inmate requested a lump of dirt for his last meal on Earth

When death row inmate James Edward Smith was asked what he would like as his final meal before his execution, he made a rather bizarre request.

The 37-year-old had been awaiting the death penalty after he shot Larry Don Rohus dead while robbing an office building in Houston, Texas.

He'd gone into the building where Rohus worked as manager wearing a mask and armed with a gun on 7 March, 1983 and demanded that they hand over money.

Rohus complied with the gunman's threats and put money from the register into a plastic bag - only for Smith to shoot him twice after he handed over the money.

When he was arrested, Smith also confessed to carrying out six 'ritualistic' murders, though they could never be proved, and he waived his appeals that could have delayed his execution.

James Edward Smith asked for a lump of dirt to be his last meal (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

The night before he was due to receive a lethal injection, he asked for his last meal to be a lump of rhaeakunda dirt.

While there have been some strange and disturbing last meal requests over the years, like one inmate who asked for a single olive with the pit still in as he hoped that an olive tree would grow out of his corpse, there aren't many requests which get turned down.

However, prison officials would not provide James Edward Smith with a lump of dirt for his last meal, thwarting his plans.

The murderer had been hoping to eat the dirt as part of a voodoo ritual which he believed would help him in an attempt at reincarnation, The Daily Express reports.

And since dirt wasn't on the approved list of foods, the key component of his bizarre ritual was not provided to him.

It wouldn't have ended up being his last meal anyway, as Smith was granted a last minute stay of execution and his lethal injection was rescheduled to take place two years later.

He twice asked for dirt and was twice told no (Getty Stock Photo)

Once again Smith had the option of asking for a last meal, and once again he asked for a lump of dirt to perform his ritual.

However, he was yet again denied and settled for a pot of plain yoghurt instead.

He was executed by lethal injection in 1990, with his last words being 'Hare Krishna'.

The practice of offering a last meal in Texas no longer applies after death row inmate Lawrence Russell Brewer, incarcerated for murdering James Byrd Jr. by dragging him behind his truck for three miles, placed a massive order and refused to eat it.

Brewer asked for a a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, two chicken steaks with gravy and onions, a cheese omelette with ground beef, jalapenos and bell peppers, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, three fajitas, one pound of barbecue and a half loaf of white bread, pizza meat lover's special, one pint of 'homemade vanilla' Blue Bell ice cream, one slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts and three root beers.

When he said he wasn't hungry, all the food was thrown away and Texas scrapped the last meal as a result.