James Robertson died by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison after telling investigators he killed his cellmate to get a death sentence instead of life behind bars. Robertson, 63, received a three-drug injection. Officials pronounced him dead about 10 minutes later. Asked for final words, he replied, “Nah, I'm straight.”
The crime and the victim
Robertson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for strangling his sleeping cellmate, Frank Hart, in 2008. He waived all appeals and told investigators he killed Hart to receive a death sentence. Hart died eight days before he was due to be released, his daughter, Rebecca Hart, told reporters outside the prison.
“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,” she said. “Other people go on with their lives, but you carry your loss into every tomorrow.” Hart received a prison sentence in 2003 after a sexual battery conviction.
Robertson was 17 when authorities sent him to prison in 1980 for burglary and assault. Later convictions for escape, battery and weapons offenses extended his sentence. His case ended in a state-administered execution after he waived the appeals that could have challenged it.
Florida's Department of Corrections says the execution process uses a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart. Before the execution, Jordan Kirkland, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson, said, “Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol.” He said he couldn't speak about Tennessee's protocol, but Florida would ensure its process was “humane and dignified.”
Florida's execution schedule
The execution came during an accelerated series of executions in Florida. The state carried out two executions in one day in July, the first time a state had done so in nearly a decade. Florida has carried out more than half of the country's 31 executions so far this year, and Robertson was Florida's 17th execution of 2026.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a flurry of death warrants since 2025. Last year, Florida carried out a record 19 executions under DeSantis, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. That figure made up approximately 40% of the U.S. total for 2025. Nationwide, officials carried out 47 executions last year, the highest annual total since 2009.
Two more Florida executions were already scheduled, excluding William Lee Thompson, whose warrant DeSantis withdrew last week. William Reaves, 77, was scheduled for execution Oct. 20 after a conviction for fatally shooting a deputy in 1986. Jesse Guardado, 64, was scheduled for Nov. 5 for robbing and killing a woman to buy drugs in 2004.
A withdrawn warrant
Florida had initially scheduled two executions for Tuesday. DeSantis withdrew the warrant for Thompson, 74, sentenced to death for his role in the 1976 kidnapping and killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester. A jury convicted Thompson of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in connection with her death. DeSantis gave no reason for withdrawing the warrant.
Last month, the governor temporarily stayed Thompson's execution while a psychiatric evaluation was pending, 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 remains on death row. DeSantis could sign a new warrant.
The execution also came two weeks after the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and went to a hospital. She has since left the hospital and returned to prison.