Final meal chosen by death row killer as he becomes oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history
Topics: Florida, Crime, Death Row, US News, True crime
Kiesha Dosanjh
Featured Image Credit: Florida Department of Corrections
Topics: Florida, Crime, Death Row, US News, True crime
A 74-year-old man from Florida became the oldest person to be executed in the state's history, after brutally killing his wife.
Dusty Ray Spencer stabbed his wife, Karen Spencer, to death in 1992.
He was pronounced dead at 6:10 pm on Thursday (June 25), following three injections at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Prior to his execution, Spencer was asked whether he had any last words, to which he said: "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."
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Another 74-year-old inmate, Dennis Sochor, is also set to be executed in the state this year. Sochor was jailed after murdering a woman he had met at a New Year’s Eve party in 1982.
As per the Tampa Bay Times, just before his death, Spencer was given a meal of pizza, french fries and a milkshake.
Inmates on death row are permitted one final meal before their execution, aside from those in Texas, who stopped allowing inmates to request their preferences in 2011.
This is due to the actions of Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was sentenced to death in the state. He requested a huge feast, which included two chicken-fried steaks, three fajitas, a meat-lovers' pizza, a full pound of barbecue, and a triple meat bacon cheeseburger.
However, when the prison provided this meal for the white supremacist, who was sentenced to death for a high-profile race crime, he refused to touch any of it.
In Florida, last meal requests for death row inmates are limited to a $40 budget, and the food must be purchased locally.
Despite being the oldest inmate in Florida to be executed, Spencer isn't the oldest in the country.
The oldest person to be executed across the United States in modern times was Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who was 83 years old at the time of his execution in Alabama in 2018.
Moody was sentenced for the 1989 letter bomb murder of Robert S. Vance, and civil rights attorney Robert E. Robinson.
Spencer, who was executed yesterday, was initially arrested after choking and threatening to kill his wife in December 1991. He called his wife while in jail, reportedly telling her he would 'finish what he started' when he was released.
Although Spencer was initially sentenced to death for the stabbing, which occurred in January 1992, that same year, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing two years later due to the trial court 'mishandled evaluating aggravating and mitigating circumstances'.
He was resentenced to death the next year.
In the United States, inmates are held in prison for an average of 20 years before their execution. This is due to ‘legal challenges, high costs, and difficulties in procuring execution drugs'.
Feguer kidnapped and killed Dr Edward Bartels in July 1960. The doctor's body was later found in an Illinois cornfield with a single gunshot to the head.
Feguer was convicted of federal kidnapping and murder and executed by hanging at the Iowa State Penitentiary on 15 March, 1963.
For his final meal, the 27-year-old murderer requested a single olive with the pit in it. Feguer apparently told guards that he hoped an olive tree would grow from his grave, 'as a sign of peace'.
One of America’s most notorious serial killers, Gacy was convicted in 1980 after murdering at least 33 boys and young men in the 1970s.
The 52-year-old was executed by lethal injection at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois on 10 May, 1994.
Gacy opted for a bucket of KFC's original recipe chicken, French fries, 12 deep-fried shrimp, and a pound of strawberries for his last supper. In an eerie full-circle moment, it’s said that he previously managed several KFC restaurants owned by his father-in-law.
Smith was found guilty of fatally shooting Larry Don Rohus while he was robbing an office building in Houston, Texas, in 1983.
He was put to death by lethal injection at Texas’ Huntsville Unit on 26 June, 1990.
The inmate asked for a lump of rhaeakunda dirt for his final meal, as part of a voodoo ritual, which he both practised and believed in, as he hoped that it would assist his journey into reincarnation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, his bizarre request was denied, and the 37-year-old was given plain yoghurt instead.
McVeigh was convicted of conspiracy, using a weapon of mass destruction, and destruction by explosives resulting in death for carrying out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
On 11 June, 2001, he was executed for his crimes via lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Indiana.
McVeigh, 33, chowed down on two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream for his final meal.