Florida Inmate ‘Chicken Head’ Killed For A Spot On Death Row. Next Week, He Gets The Needle

Florida is on track to match its single-year record for state executions following Gov. Ron DeSantis’s decision to sign the administration’s 19th death warrant of the year, scheduling the lethal injection of 63-year-old James “Chicken Head” Robertson.

Robertson is scheduled to be put to death at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Florida State Prison in Starke. State corrections officials noted that Robertson is slated to become the 17th condemned inmate executed in Florida this year, moving ahead of two other prisoners who were already awaiting execution dates. The scheduling comes on the heels of the recent Thursday execution of the “Hog Trail Killer,” who was put to death for a 1996 Charlotte County murder.

Robertson’s path through the Florida correctional system spans more than four decades. He first entered state custody as a teenager in 1980 after receiving consecutive sentences for a violent series of offenses across several counties, including burglary, aggravated assault, and attempted murder. Prison records indicate that under those original sentences, he would not have been eligible for release until 2038.

On Dec. 10, 2008, while housed in a close-management unit at Charlotte Correctional Institution, Robertson attacked his cellmate, Frank Hart. According to official investigative reports, Robertson waited until Hart was fast asleep in their bunk before strangling and suffocating him with a homemade garrote constructed out of tube socks tied tightly together.

Following the killing, Robertson surprised investigators and prosecutors by freely confessing to the crime and actively demanding the ultimate punishment. He told prison officials and attorneys that the act was not sparked by an argument, but was instead an intentional maneuver to escape the living conditions of maximum-security confinement.

“I killed my cellmate because I wanted the better jailhouse conditions on death row,” Robertson said, explaining that death row inmates had access to private single cells, personal television sets, and fewer direct interactions with the general inmate population.

State legal officials corroborated Robertson’s unusual motive in documentation sent directly to the governor’s office. Attorney General James Uthmeier addressed the lack of conflict between the two men in a formal transmittal letter accompanying the case file.

“According to Robertson’s admissions, there was no provocation or fight that led to the murder,” Uthmeier said. “Robertson stated that he murdered his cellmate so that he would be charged with first-degree murder and be sentenced to death.”

In the weeks following Hart’s murder, Robertson sent handwritten letters to the State Attorney’s Office in Charlotte County, insisting that the act was deliberate, planned in advance, and designed solely to secure a death sentence. Prosecutors initially filed charges of second-degree murder and offered him a plea agreement that would have carried a sentence of life in prison without parole. Robertson rejected the offer, demanding to face capital charges instead.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. On Dec. 18, 2012, a circuit court judge formally sentenced Robertson to death by lethal injection.

The Florida Supreme Court reviewed the legal proceedings and officially upheld Robertson’s conviction and capital sentence in 2016. In the years that followed, Robertson consistently sought to waive additional state and federal post-conviction appeals, maintaining his desire to see the sentence carried out.

Gov. DeSantis signed Robertson’s active death warrant on Oct. 1, directing the Florida Department of Corrections to finalize preparations for the Oct. 13 lethal injection at the state prison complex in Bradford County.

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