Florida executes inmate who killed cellmate to seek death penalty

Florida executed James Robertson, 63, by lethal injection at Raiford State Prison on Tuesday at 12:32 p.m. local time. He was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later and declined to offer any last words. Robertson pleaded guilty to strangling his cellmate Frank Hart in 2008 while serving sentences for robbery, weapons offenses, and sexual assault. He confessed to investigators that he killed Hart specifically to receive a death sentence and waived all appeals. Hart was killed eight days before his scheduled release; his daughter Rebecca Hart said her father was not merely a piece of Robertson's story. This marks Florida's 17th execution in 2026, following a record 19 executions in 2025, with more dates still scheduled. Governor Ron DeSantis halted the same-day execution of William Lee Thompson, 74, whose defense says he suffers from dementia. The execution occurred two weeks after Christa Pike survived two lethal injection doses in Tennessee, an unprecedented event in the modern death penalty era. Florida Corrections spokesperson Jordan Kirkland defended the state's three-drug protocol as humane and dignified, while the Pentagon announced plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, drawing bipartisan criticism.