Florida to Execute James Robertson at Noon Tuesday After He Killed His Cellmate to Get on Death Row
James Robertson, 63, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at noon at Florida State Prison in Raiford, a sentence he sought, court records show. If carried out, it would be the state's 17th execution of 2026.
RAIFORD, Fla.: Florida is scheduled to execute James Robertson at noon on Tuesday at Florida State Prison, for the 2008 murder of his cellmate, a killing Robertson admitted he committed because he wanted to be sent to death row.
Robertson, 63, would be the 17th person executed in Florida this year. The state already has two more executions scheduled for Oct. 20 and Nov. 5. In all the other U.S. states combined, there have been 14 executions this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, the Herald-Tribune reported.
On Dec. 10, 2008, Robertson strangled his cellmate, Frank Hart, with a garrote made from socks tied together at Charlotte Correctional Institution, court records show. Robertson, who had spent nearly 30 years in prison, told investigators there had been no provocation or fight, and that he had planned the murder so he would face the death penalty.
He was initially charged with second-degree murder and offered a life sentence, but he demanded first-degree murder charges, then stabbed a prison guard in 2011. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to death in 2012.
A sentence he sought
Robertson waived his jury penalty phase. In 2014 his lawyer tried to withdraw from representing a client who did not want to appeal a sentence he had fought hard to avoid, but the Florida Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to force the lawyer to stay on. After the sentence was affirmed, Robertson waived his right to further postconviction proceedings and fired his attorney. No appeals have been filed since.
On Oct. 1, during a Zoom case management conference, Robertson confirmed his wish to be executed. “Because I was found guilty,” he said. “You know, I chose the death penalty over the life sentence, and I just, you know, want the sentence to be carried out.”
In 2023 he wrote a letter to then-Attorney General Ashley Moody asking why his execution was taking so long, according to the Herald-Tribune.
The anti-death penalty group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said inmates seeking the death penalty is not uncommon, and that the case raises “deeply troubling questions about isolation, despair, and the use of execution as a means of escaping incarceration.” The group also said such cases point to the ineffectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent.
The second execution that will not happen today
Robertson’s execution had been scheduled as the first of two for Tuesday. On Oct. 8, Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew the death warrant for the other man, William Lee Thompson, 74, who was convicted of the 1976 kidnapping, rape and murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester in Miami.
Thompson’s lawyers had argued that his mental capacity, including possible dementia, meant he could not be executed under Florida law, pointing to recent assessments in which he seemed unaware of his own medical history, thought “Bush” was still the president and could not respond verbally to questions. DeSantis had appointed three psychiatrists to evaluate Thompson but gave no reason for withdrawing the warrant.
DeSantis is on track to match the 19 death warrants he issued in 2025, the Herald-Tribune reported. The previous Florida record for one year was eight. The next scheduled executions are William Reaves Jr., convicted of the 1986 murder of Indian River County sheriff’s deputy Richard Raczkoski, on Oct. 20, and Jesse Guardado, sentenced to death for the 2004 murder of 75-year-old community activist Jackie Malone, on Nov. 5.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and its partners planned vigils and demonstrations across the state ahead of Tuesday’s execution.
Reporting based on coverage by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
