A 63-year-old Florida inmate, James Robertson, has been executed by lethal injection nearly 18 years after he murdered his sleeping cellmate, Frank Hart, in a calculated attempt to receive the death penalty rather than spend the rest of his life in prison.
Robertson was pronounced dead at 12:32 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at Florida State Prison near Starke, according to the Associated Press and other US media reports.
He had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for killing Hart at Charlotte Correctional Institution in December 2008. Court records show that Robertson admitted the attack was unprovoked and that he deliberately murdered his cellmate because he wanted to be sentenced to death.
Hart was reportedly just eight days away from his scheduled release when Robertson attacked him while he slept.
According to court records, Robertson fashioned a strangling device by tying several socks together and used it to kill Hart after waiting for prison guards to complete their routine rounds.
Robertson later explained that he preferred execution to continuing his existing prison sentence, which had been extended by additional convictions for offences committed behind bars.
He had first entered prison at the age of 17 in 1980 after being convicted of burglary and assault. Subsequent convictions for escape, battery and weapons-related offences added to his sentence.
Following Hart’s murder, Robertson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to death in December 2012. He subsequently waived his right to pursue further appeals, repeatedly maintaining that he wanted the state to carry out the sentence.
During a court hearing earlier this month, Robertson confirmed that he understood his execution was scheduled and did not wish to seek further legal challenges.
His execution was carried out using a three-drug lethal injection protocol. Witnesses reported that when he was asked whether he had any final words, he replied, “Nah, I’m straight.”
The case has drawn renewed attention to the debate surrounding capital punishment in the United States, particularly because Robertson deliberately committed a murder in order to receive the sentence that was ultimately carried out.
Frank Hart’s family, meanwhile, has continued to emphasise the lasting impact of his death.
Hart’s daughter, Rebecca, spoke about the devastating loss and reminded the public that her father was more than a victim in the story of the man who killed him. Her remarks highlighted the importance of remembering the life that was taken, rather than focusing exclusively on the unusual motive behind the crime.
Hart had been imprisoned since 2003 following a sexual battery conviction and was approaching the end of his sentence when he was killed.
Robertson’s execution was Florida’s 17th in 2026, following a record 19 executions in the state in 2025, according to reports. The case also unfolded amid wider scrutiny of execution procedures in the United States following a failed execution attempt in Tennessee in September.
Although Robertson’s death ends the criminal proceedings against him, it cannot undo the loss suffered by Hart’s family nearly two decades ago.
The case remains an unusual example of an offender deliberately seeking the death penalty through murder, raising difficult questions about punishment, deterrence and the families left to live with the consequences of violent crime.
