Florida executes man who killed his cellmate to get a death sentence

James Robertson spent more than four decades in Florida prisons, accumulating convictions for escape, battery and weapons offenses on top of the burglary and assault that first sent him away at 17. By 2008, he had a plan to leave on his own terms: kill his cellmate, get a death sentence, and make the state do what he could not do himself in a failed 1998 suicide attempt. On Tuesday, Florida obliged.

At Florida State Prison in Raiford, Robertson, 63, was declared dead at 12:32 p.m. EDT following a three-drug lethal injection — a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug to stop the heart. The execution took about 10 minutes. Asked for a final statement, Robertson said: "Nah, I'm straight."

The execution took place without incident.— Jordan Kirkland, Director of Communications, Florida Department of Corrections

At Charlotte Correctional Institution in December 2008, Robertson used a ligature fashioned from knotted socks to strangle his sleeping cellmate, Frank Hart, 52, and later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the killing. He told investigators the attack was unprovoked and that he wanted a death sentence because he was tired of prison life. He waived a penalty-phase jury, was sentenced to death by a judge in 2012, and later gave up all post-conviction appeals. The Florida Supreme Court unanimously upheld his conviction and sentence in 2016.

Hart's daughter, Rebecca Hart, spoke outside the prison after the execution, making clear she had come to ensure her father was not reduced to a footnote in his killer's story. Hart had been imprisoned since 2003 on a sexual battery conviction and was eight days from release when he was killed, according to his daughter.

I came here because I needed to be here. I need to stand in this moment as his daughter, not just someone watching a headline unfold. I need to honor him, to speak his name and to make sure the man at the center of the story is not forgotten.— Rebecca Hart, daughter of victim Frank Hart

Rebecca Hart noted that for viewers her father's death may be an episode they can watch and turn off, while for her family there is no remote control and no way to turn off the memories of what happened to someone they loved.

Robertson had been featured in Netflix's "I Am a Killer" and the documentary series "World's Most Dangerous Prisoners," according to Rebecca Hart and local media reports cited by UPI.

Death penalty opponents seized on the case's central irony. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty argued that the existence of capital punishment was the direct cause of Hart's murder.

We cannot ignore this inescapable truth: the very existence of the death penalty led to Frank Hart's murder.— Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Frank Hart deserved to be safe in state custody, and his loved ones deserve our compassion.— Maria DeLiberato, Legal and Policy Director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Tuesday was originally meant to be a double execution day in Florida. Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew the death warrant for William Lee Thompson, 74 — the first time DeSantis has withdrawn a warrant — without giving a public reason. DeSantis had already temporarily stayed Thompson's execution the previous month pending a psychiatric evaluation. Thompson's attorneys say he has dementia and failing health and have asked that he be transferred to a medical facility. Thompson is still on death row, and the governor could sign a new warrant at some point. DeSantis is only the third Florida governor to have signed a death warrant for Thompson; both former Gov. Bob Graham and former Gov. Bob Martinez scheduled his execution during the 1980s, only for those dates to be blocked by appeals and stays.

Robertson's execution is the 17th carried out by Florida in 2026, and the 31st nationwide this year. More than half of all executions conducted across the United States so far in 2026 have taken place in Florida. DeSantis, who leaves office in January, presided over 19 executions in 2025, a figure that represented roughly 40 percent of the national total that year and was the highest single-year count for any Florida governor since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. Florida became the first state in nearly a decade to put two prisoners to death on the same day when it did so in July 2026.

Two more Florida executions are already scheduled: William Reaves, 77, convicted of fatally shooting a sheriff's deputy in 1986, is set for Oct. 20; Jesse Guardado, 64, whose 2004 conviction stems from robbing and killing a woman to buy drugs, faces a scheduled execution date of Nov. 5. If both proceed, Florida would match its 2025 record of 19 executions with weeks still remaining in the year.

Capital punishment has drawn heightened national attention in the period surrounding Robertson's execution. Two weeks ago in Tennessee, Christa Pike survived an execution attempt after receiving two lethal doses of pentobarbital and was rushed to a hospital before being returned to prison. Florida's Department of Corrections spokesperson said ahead of Tuesday's execution that the state's process was "humane and dignified" and that Florida has a "sound lethal injection process and protocol."

Why it matters — Robertson's case crystallizes a live national debate: Florida is executing people at a pace that accounts for more than half of all U.S. executions this year, and his killing of a cellmate specifically to obtain a death sentence gives opponents a concrete argument that capital punishment can incite the very violence it is meant to punish.

Reported by foxnews.com, pbs.org, upi.com, washingtonpost.com, ibtimes.com.au