James Robertson faces execution. Florida executed James Robertson, an inmate who killed his cellmate to receive the death penalty, on Tuesday, as controversy over capital punishment grows in the United States following the failed lethal injection of inmate Christa Pike in Tennessee.
James Robertson, 63, received a lethal injection at 12:32 p.m. local time (4:32 p.m. GMT) at Florida State Prison in Raiford, in the northern part of the state, becoming the 17th person executed in Florida this year. The state set a record with 19 executions in 2025.
Florida was set to execute two people on the same day, but Governor Ron DeSantis halted the execution of William Lee Thompson, 74, who suffers from dementia, according to his defense.
⚖️ Florida vs James Robertson⚖️Convicted of Capital Murder. Execution set for Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Sentenced to death for murdering his cellmate, Frank Hart, in December 2008 at Charlotte Correctional Institution. He strangled Hart with a chain of socks, intending to escape prison life. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
— American Crime Stories (@AmericanCrime01) October 13, 2026
Robertson was convicted of strangling his cellmate, Frank Hart, in 2008 at a prison in southwest Florida, where he was serving time for robbery, weapons offenses, assault, and sexual assault. He confessed that he committed the murder to receive the death penalty, according to the Florida Supreme Court.
The James Robertson execution took place amid national controversy over the case of Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee, who survived a lethal injection on September 30, an unprecedented event in the modern era of capital punishment in the country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
Tennessee authorities said they followed protocol, while Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, ordered an independent review and suspended the remaining executions this year, according to the DPIC.
DeSantis signed Robertson's execution order on October 1, the day after the failed attempt in Tennessee.
🚨 EXECUTED: FLORIDA PUTS CONVICTED CELLmate KILLER JAMES ROBERTSON TO DEATH
October 13, 2026 | Raiford, Florida
James Robertson, 63, was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison today. He was pronounced dead at 12:32 p.m. ET.
Robertson was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of fellow inmate Frank Hart, whom he strangled with knotted socks.
In a disturbing twist, Robertson admitted he deliberately murdered Hart because he wanted to be sentenced to death rather than spend the rest of his life behind bars.
He pleaded guilty, waived his appeals, and did not fight his execution.
Robertson became the 17th person executed in Florida in 2026.
— Lindsay 🇺🇸 (@TheLinzerShow) October 13, 2026
The United States has carried out 31 executions this year, 17 of them in Florida, more than the other five states that carried them out combined, according to the DPIC.
Dozens of Latino evangelical leaders were set to meet in Tallahassee, Florida's capital, on Tuesday to ask DeSantis to suspend executions, according to the evangelical organization Mission Talk.
They were expected to deliver a letter signed by more than 70 bishops, pastors, and other leaders of Latino churches in the state.
Agustín Quiles, founder and president of Mission Talk, accused the governor of turning Florida into the capital of executions in the United States while the rest of the country moves away from the death penalty.
Florida has two more executions scheduled, on October 20 and November 5, and if they are carried out, the state will equal the 19 executions of 2025, a record in its modern history.
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