Florida killer who murdered his cellmate just to get death penalty finally faces execution

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A Florida inmate who strangled his sleeping cellmate in a calculated bid to get himself sentenced to death is set to be executed Tuesday, nearly 18 years after the killing.

James Robertson, 63, has admitted to murdering fellow prisoner Frank Hart in 2008 because he wanted to be executed rather than spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Robertson, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and waived his right to appeal, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at noon at Florida State Prison near Starke.

His execution comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis oversees another record-breaking year of executions in Florida, which has accounted for more than half of those carried out nationwide in 2026.

Florida had initially scheduled two executions for Tuesday, but DeSantis withdrew the death warrant for another inmate, William Lee Thompson, last week.

The Republican governor did not explain his decision, which followed an earlier stay to allow Thompson to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

It marked the first time DeSantis has withdrawn a death warrant, according to official records. Thompson remains on death row and could face execution at a later date.

Robertson was serving a lengthy prison sentence at Charlotte Correctional Institution, north of Fort Myers, when he strangled Hart with socks tied together in December 2008.

Hart was asleep when Robertson attacked him.

Investigators said Robertson admitted the killing was unprovoked and that he had deliberately committed murder to secure a death sentence.

Robertson first entered prison in 1980, at age 17, following convictions for assault and burglary.

Over the following decades, his sentence grew longer as he accumulated additional convictions for offenses committed behind bars, including possessing weapons, battery and attempted escapes.

Hart had been imprisoned in 2003 following a sexual battery conviction.

After pleading guilty to Hart’s murder, Robertson waived his right to a jury sentencing proceeding and was sentenced to death by a judge.

He subsequently abandoned all appeals and efforts to challenge his conviction or sentence.

During a court hearing earlier this month, Robertson reaffirmed that decision, acknowledging his scheduled execution and declining to pursue any final appeals before the Florida Supreme Court or US Supreme Court.

His case has prompted renewed criticism of capital punishment from opponents who argue that the death penalty may have encouraged the very murder it was intended to punish.

“Frank Hart deserved to be safe in state custody, and his loved ones deserve our compassion,” said Maria DeLiberato, legal and policy director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

“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.”

The decision to halt Thompson’s execution has drawn attention because of his lengthy history on Florida’s death row.

Now 74, Thompson was convicted of first-degree murder, sexual battery and kidnapping in the 1976 killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester.

His execution has previously been authorized by three Florida governors, including DeSantis and former governors Bob Graham and Bob Martinez.

Legal challenges and stays prevented Thompson from being executed in the 1980s, when Florida used the electric chair.

His attorneys now say he has dementia and deteriorating health, arguing that he should be transferred to a medical facility where he can receive appropriate treatment.

Another longtime death row inmate, James Dailey, 80, remains alive despite DeSantis signing his death warrant in 2019.

Dailey was sentenced to death for the murder of a 14-year-old girl. His execution was stayed by a federal judge while his attorneys challenged his conviction.

Although the stay was subsequently lifted, DeSantis did not issue another warrant.

Florida suspended executions during the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming them in 2023.

Since then, the pace has accelerated dramatically.

DeSantis oversaw 19 executions in 2025, the highest number carried out in a single year under any Florida governor since capital punishment resumed in 1976.

Robertson is scheduled to become the 17th person executed in Florida this year.

Two more executions are scheduled: William Reaves, 77, on October 20, and Jesse Guardado, 64, on November 5.

Reaves was sentenced to death for fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy in 1986, while Guardado was convicted of a 2004 murder committed during a robbery to obtain drug money.

If all three executions proceed, Florida will match its 2025 record before the end of the year.

The state’s aggressive use of capital punishment comes amid renewed national scrutiny of execution methods.

Two weeks ago, Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survived an execution attempt despite reportedly receiving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

The Pentagon also announced last week that it intends to livestream the execution by firing squad of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan.

Across the United States, 47 executions were carried out in 2025.

Of the 30 executions reported nationwide so far in 2026, more than half have taken place in Florida.

The state also carried out a double execution in July, the first in the country in nearly a decade.

DeSantis has said relatively little publicly about Florida’s accelerating execution schedule, although he has previously framed the policy as a way to deliver long-delayed justice to victims’ families.

“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,” he said last year.

Florida uses a three-drug lethal injection procedure consisting of a sedative, a paralytic agent and a final drug intended to stop the heart.

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