Florida to execute a prisoner who killed his cellmate in hopes of getting a death sentence

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida prisoner who claimed he killed his cellmate so he could be moved to death row is set to be executed Tuesday, nearly 18 years after the fatal attack.

James Robertson, 63, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and waived all appeals in the 2008 strangling of Frank Hart. Robertson is set to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at noon.

Robertson was supposed to be one of two executions carried out by Florida on Tuesday, but Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew a death warrant last week for William Lee Thompson. The Republican governor did not provide a reason for withdrawing Thompson’s death warrant but had temporarily stayed his execution last month pending a psychiatric evaluation.

Records show that this is the first time DeSantis has withdrawn a death warrant, which does not technically change Thompson’s sentence. He will remain on death row, and a new death warrant could be signed for him in the future.

Robertson’s execution comes at a time of escalating attention on the death penalty in the U.S. In Tennessee, Christa Pike survived an execution attempt two weeks ago despite receiving two lethal doses of pentobarbital. And last week, the Pentagon announced that the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan would be livestreamed.

Robertson wanted to be on death row

According to court records, Robertson was incarcerated at Charlotte Correctional Institution, north of Fort Myers, in December 2008 when he tied several socks together and strangled Hart while the other man slept. Robertson told investigators that the attack was unprovoked and that he killed his cellmate so that he would be sentenced to death, rather than having to live out his days in prison.

Robertson was 17 years old when he went to prison in 1980 for burglary and assault. Years of convictions for escape, battery and weapons while in prison kept adding time to his total sentence. Hart was sent to prison in 2003 following a sexual battery conviction.

Robertson pleaded guilty and waived a penalty phase, where a jury would recommend the death penalty or life in prison. A judge sentenced Robertson to death, and he later waived all post-conviction proceedings. Robertson reiterated his position during a hearing earlier this month, telling a judge that he understood his execution had been scheduled and that he didn’t want to make any final appeals to the Florida Supreme Court or U.S. Supreme Court.

Death penalty opponents question its deterrent effect

While proponents of the death penalty have long claimed that it is a deterrent, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty released a statement saying that this case demonstrates the opposite.

“Frank Hart deserved to be safe in state custody, and his loved ones deserve our compassion,” the group’s legal and policy director, Maria DeLiberato, said in the statement. “When someone commits murder to try to secure his own execution, we have to confront the conditions that contributed to that decision and the reality that the existence of the death penalty may have caused the very violence it purportedly prevents.”

A rare reprieve leaves another Florida prisoner on death row

Meanwhile, DeSantis is the third Florida governor to sign a death warrant for Thompson. Bob Graham and Bob Martinez both scheduled executions for Thompson in the 1980s, but years of appeals and stays allowed him to avoid the electric chair, the state’s method of execution at the time. The 74-year-old death row inmate was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in the 1976 killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester.

Thompson will remain on Florida’s death row, and a new death warrant could be signed for him in the future. His attorneys have said he suffers from dementia, and his health is failing. They said he should be relocated to an adequate medical facility to get the care he needs.

Only one other Florida inmate remains alive following a death warrant signed by DeSantis. James Dailey, 80, was scheduled to die in late 2019 for the murder of a 14-year-old girl, but a federal judge halted the execution as attorneys argued against his guilt. The stay was eventually lifted, but DeSantis didn’t sign a new death warrant. The state halted all executions during the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t restart until 2023.

Florida has the nation’s busiest death chamber

DeSantis, who leaves office in January, oversaw 19 executions in 2025, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Robertson would be the state’s 17th execution of 2026, with two more already scheduled, not counting Thompson.

William Reaves, 77, is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 20, followed by Jesse Guardado, 64, on Nov. 5. Reaves was convicted of fatally shooting a deputy after dropping a gun in front of the law enforcement officer in 1986. Guardado was convicted of robbing and killing a woman in order to buy drugs in 2004.

If Robertson, Reaves and Guardado are all executed as planned, that would match the state’s 2025 total, with eight weeks remaining in 2026.

DeSantis has made few public comments about the unprecedented number of executions but explained previously that his goal is to bring justice to victims’ families who have waited decades for the death sentences to be carried out.

“I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly. If I honestly thought someone was innocent, I would not pull the trigger,” the governor said last year.

A total of executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.

All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.