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British-born convicted killer Nicholas Lee Ingram requested a last cigarette before his death by electrocution in 1995. Latin Times

A death row inmate's last meal request—a cigarette—was initially denied by prison guards because it would have been bad for his health.

Nicholas Lee Ingram murdered J.C. Sawyer and injured his wife during an armed robbery in Georgia in 1983 and was executed for it in 1995, according to his friend of 12 years, Clive Stafford Smith, who shared Ingram's story with LadBible TV.

Before he was taken to the electric chair, Smith said Ingram requested a cigarette for his last meal, which guards denied at first because it was not good for his health.

"You know they go through all that nonsense about last meals and Nicky said, 'I don't want a last meal because you're about to kill me,' and he said, 'I want a last cigarette'. So I ask if they'll give him a last cigarette and they say no because it's bad for his health," Smith told LadBible TV.

"And I say, 'you've got to be kidding me, you're planning to kill this poor guy,' so I went out and told the media, and they were humiliated by that, so they gave him a last cigarette, but then they shaved his head and shaved his leg and put 2,400 volts through him, it's just disgusting," Smith added.

Smith, a human rights lawyer, shared Smith's story in a LadBible TV episode that investigated the cruelty of the death penalty and attempted to uncover what it would mean to abolish it in the US.