A Florida prisoner who said he killed his cellmate specifically to secure a death sentence was executed Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. James Robertson, 63, was pronounced dead at 12:32 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection.
Robertson had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and waived all post-conviction appeals in the December 2008 strangling of Frank Hart, his cellmate at a prison in southwest Florida where he was serving sentences for other crimes. According to court documents, Robertson confessed that he committed the murder to obtain a death sentence and avoid spending the remainder of his life in prison. He declined to offer any last words before the injection and was pronounced dead approximately 10 minutes later.
The execution proceeded without incident, according to Jordan Kirkland, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Corrections. Kirkland stated at a news conference before the execution that "Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol."
Robertson's execution was originally scheduled to be one of two carried out by Florida on Tuesday. However, Governor Ron DeSantis withdrew a death warrant last week for William Lee Thompson, 74, who according to his defense suffers from dementia. The Republican governor did not provide a reason for withdrawing Thompson's death warrant, though he had temporarily stayed the execution last month pending a psychiatric evaluation.
Robertson's execution marks the 17th carried out in Florida this year. The state set a record in 2025 with 19 executions.
The execution comes amid escalating national attention on capital punishment in the United States. In Tennessee, death row inmate Christa Pike survived an execution attempt on September 30, despite receiving two lethal doses of pentobarbital and being rushed to the hospital. Last week, the Pentagon announced that the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan would be livestreamed, drawing criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.