STARKE, Fla. (WWSB) – Florida executed James Robertson on Oct. 15, marking the state’s 17th execution of 2026, as protesters gathered outside Florida State Prison to oppose capital punishment.
Robertson was executed for the 2008 murder of his cellmate, Frank Richard Hart, at the Charlotte Correctional Institution. Prosecutors said Robertson, who was already incarcerated on other charges, wanted to die and killed Hart by strangling him with socks.
Hart’s daughter, Rebecca, attended the execution.
Moments before his death, Robertson lifted his head, looked at everyone in the observation room and smiled. When asked if he had any last words, he said, “Nah, I’m straight.”
The lethal injection began at 12:22 p.m. Robertson winced slightly and was breathing heavily before he was declared dead 10 minutes later.
Florida executes James Robertson for 2008 murder of cellmate
His last meal was steak, potatoes, fried eggs, toast and milk. He had two visitors, a cousin and a pen pal, and declined a visit with a spiritual advisor.
The execution took place two weeks after Tennessee inmate Krista Pike survived two lethal injection attempts.
Members of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty protested outside Florida State Prison ahead of the execution. The group said the cancellation of a separate execution originally scheduled for that afternoon made them feel the government is starting to listen to them.
“I mean, it’s a disgusting pace. It’s a disgusting rate. And yet, again, I think history and time will tell that Florida is on the wrong side of history here, without question,” one protester said.
The group prayed for both those being executed and their victims.
“The death penalty, I think, is becoming sort of a… at least in Florida right now, it’s been… it’s on the public’s mind and now nationally as well. And so, looking at how states are responding to the botched execution in Tennessee and, of course, the Trump administration’s announcement of the live-streamed execution, you know, we’re seeing some states who are going in the opposite direction, and then this administration in Florida seems content to continue its unprecedented killing spree, but it is a real disconnect between what the people of the state of Florida want,” a protester said.
The group said it will continue to show up and speak out at the prison until capital punishment is no longer legal in Florida.
Florida is on track to execute at least 19 prisoners in 2026, with two more executions scheduled. That would match the state’s record of 19 executions set in 2025.
Florida has carried out more executions than the rest of the nation combined this year, 14 more.
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