Florida executed James Robertson at Florida State Prison on Tuesday with a three-drug injection. Robertson had said he killed his cellmate to get a death sentence. The state ended one life by its own machinery; the killing that brought Robertson to the execution chamber had taken another.
“When someone you love is taken from you in such a violent way, the world keeps moving, even when a part of yours feels like it has stopped,” Rebecca Hart said outside the prison. Her father, Frank Hart, was strangled in his sleep by Robertson in 2008, eight days before Hart was due to be released. “Other people go on with their lives, but you carry your loss into every tomorrow,” she said.
Robertson died about 10 minutes after the injection. Asked for final words, he replied, “Nah, I'm straight.”
The state’s machinery
Robertson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and waived all appeals. He told investigators he killed Hart so he’d receive a death sentence instead of spending the rest of his life behind bars. Hart had received a prison sentence in 2003 following a sexual battery conviction.
Robertson was 17 when he went to prison in 1980 for burglary and assault. Later convictions for escape, battery and weapons offenses extended his sentence. The state kept him behind bars, then carried out the death sentence he’d sought.
Florida's Department of Corrections says its execution process uses a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart. Jordan Kirkland, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson, defended the procedure before the execution: “Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol.” Kirkland said he couldn't speak about Tennessee's protocol, but Florida would ensure its process was “humane and dignified.”
That assurance came after news of Christa Pike’s botched execution in Tennessee two weeks earlier. Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital, went to a hospital, and has since left the hospital and returned to prison.
The governor’s warrants
Florida had initially scheduled two executions for Tuesday. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew a death warrant last week for William Lee Thompson, 74, who remains on death row. DeSantis gave no reason for withdrawing the warrant. Last month, he’d temporarily stayed the execution while Thompson underwent a psychiatric evaluation amid concerns about his mental competency and deteriorating health.
Thompson's attorneys said he has dementia and failing health and sought his transfer to a medical facility. He received a death sentence for his role in the 1976 kidnapping and killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester, and was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in connection with her death. DeSantis could still sign a new warrant.
This was the first time DeSantis had withdrawn a death warrant for Thompson. Former Govs. Bob Graham and Bob Martinez each scheduled executions for him in the 1980s, but appeals and stays helped him avoid the electric chair, Florida's execution method at the time.
An expanding execution schedule
Florida executed two prisoners in one day in July, the first time a state had done so in nearly a decade. DeSantis has accelerated executions amid a flurry of death warrants he has signed since 2025. His administration oversaw a record 19 executions last year, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty returned in 1976. That was approximately 40% of the U.S. total for 2025.
Nationwide, 47 executions took place last year, the highest annual total since 2009. Florida has carried out more than half of the country's 31 executions so far this year. Robertson was Florida's 17th execution of 2026.
Two more executions were already scheduled, not including Thompson's. William Reaves, 77, convicted of fatally shooting a deputy in 1986, was scheduled for execution Oct. 20. Jesse Guardado, 64, was scheduled for Nov. 5 for robbing and killing a woman to buy drugs in 2004. The article describes no grassroots response or mutual-aid effort; state officials still control the warrants, the prison, and the execution protocol.