Transcript of James Robertson

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 545 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson, and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you?

You're a little slow on that. You're like, uh, my— do I still want him as my partner?

Oh yeah, I think about that every week, you know. And what are my options here? No, I'm just kidding.

That was too— came off too quick.

What can I tell you? I'm quick.

Well, I was doing okay until that. Until that.

Now you're in a bad mood. I'm sorry.

It's all right.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. All right, buddy, we jump right in on these Thursday episodes. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All the Time?

I am.

We're talking about James Robertson, and this is, uh, you know, a case that has been in the news recently because James Robertson was just executed in Florida. Earlier this month, nearly 2 decades after killing his cellmate because he wanted to receive the death penalty.

Man, I mean, I guess if you don't want to be in prison for the rest of your life, which I don't know why anybody would want that.

No, no. Um, especially depending on how old you were when you first went in, to think that you're going to spend the next 60 years of your life in prison, man, that's tough. That's tough.

Yeah.

But, you know, the, the gears of justice, especially when it comes to the death penalty, they, they don't work quickly.

No.

And there's reasons behind that, but it took, you know, them 20 years to, to execute him. In 2018, James Robertson was interviewed for the Netflix show I Am a Killer.

Well, that's a show you like.

I do like that show. I watch it. He recounted his childhood growing up just outside Orlando. In his words, He had a pretty good childhood and he came from a lower middle-class family. And you know, a lot of cases we do, people have jacked up childhoods, right? But not everybody had a, an Aileen Wuornos childhood.

No.

Some killers, they grow up in good families. Um, you know, their parents did everything they could to set 'em on the right path, For whatever reason though, you know, they, they chose to go a different direction.

They made some bad decisions.

Yeah. I mean, to say the least, right? Robertson in junior high, he started skipping school, started hanging out on the streets, using drugs, uh, partying with his friends. He experimented with marijuana, but also other hard drugs such as acid, PCP, and cocaine.

Well, that's like the smorgasbord of drugs.

Smorgasbord.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, a lot of people dabble with marijuana.

Yes.

Right. I mean, now it's legal in a lot of places. But even when it wasn't, when we were growing up, I had a lot of friends who smoked. I just never quite cared for it. I'm not saying I never did it. I just didn't like it a lot. I'll tell you what I didn't do was, uh, PCP. I'm not going to comment on some of the other ones, but yeah,

I, I'll just echo what you said.

Yeah,

I didn't try that PCP.

Uh, I always thought that was the one where people would go against the cops and like it would take like 6 police officers to take somebody down because they had like superhuman strength or whatever. But Robertson was first arrested when he was only 12 years old. He was charged with shoplifting. According to him, he began stealing things like bicycles.

Okay,

maybe he was selling them. Maybe that was a way to make money. I, I don't know. I can't imagine you're just stealing bikes and you're lining them up behind your house, you know, just riding a different one every day.

Put them all like, uh, underneath the bridge or something and like, all right, you want to buy a bike? Come on down here.

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, for somebody whose family can't afford a bike and you're gonna sell it to them for, I don't know, bucks, $5 or something,

maybe

that would be tempting.

I mean,

to a lot of kids.

I don't know how hard it is to steal a bike anymore. I mean, it was—

I don't know how hard it was ever,

really. I mean, unless it has like a super, super chain on it.

Yeah, I mean, you just jump on it and you pedal away. You know, that's

it. That's the complexity.

I don't know today, maybe they have alarms. I have no idea. I haven't ridden a bike in many, many years.

Little tracking device.

But I know when you and I were kids, there was nothing like that.

No, and we, we all would just like— there's always those one kids that would park their bikes like with a kickstand and standing up, but most of us, we just throw it down. We just jumped off and let it It stopped on its own and fell over.

Wherever it ended up, it ended up. Around the age of 16, he started breaking into places to get money for drugs. He broke into a business across the street from his house and stole a stereo, which he exchanged for drugs. He returned to steal speakers, and that's when he was caught by security guards. And apparently there was some type of wrestling match And he attempted to get a knife out and stab the guards and run away, but he was overpowered and couldn't get to his weapon.

Gotta watch out for those people that wrestle.

Well, also people who have knives.

It's a de facto.

I know, the de facto. I do not believe that is a word. I've heard of trifecta. This is a de facto. De facto, which is 2. I think you just made that up.

Uh,

but like I say quite a bit, this guy shares a lot of commonalities with you. I don't know why you share so many commonalities with a lot of the people that we talk about.

I don't know either.

You wrestle, you're walking around with a singlet, you're obsessed with knives.

Do you know how hard it is to hide your Ka-Bar in a singlet?

I would, I would assume pretty hard and also very dangerous.

Is that a, is that a Ka-Bar, or are you just, uh— Yeah, no, it's a Ka-Bar.

That's very dangerous, I would think, to even try.

Yeah.

So in 1980, uh, shortly after his 17th birthday, Robertson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary and assault. 17 years old.

Wow.

To get 10 years. And he started racking up additional charges while he was incarcerated, including attempted escape, battery on a law enforcement officer, and weapons charges. According to him, he earned more prison time for stabbings, fighting, and being involved in a riot. And I don't know that that's that unusual.

No, I don't think so. And I think, you know, going into prison that young, what kind of education you're going to get from the other inmates.

And you're also probably going to be a target.

Sure. Yeah. You

know, you're young, um, you got to stand up for yourself. But I think that's the other reason why it's probably not that hard to catch additional charges in prison.

Yeah,

it is a very violent place. Yeah.

And you gotta fight.

You gotta fight. Um, people are all the time trying to fashion weapons. Maybe not to hurt somebody, but for protection. But of course, if they use them, they're going to get an additional charge for that. He claimed that while incarcerated at Cross City Correctional Institution, he was falsely accused of killing an inmate, which added 15 years to his sentence.

That would, that would hurt if you didn't have anything to do with it. Now you got another 15 years.

Yeah, because, you know, let's break it down. Right? You're 17 years old. You walk into prison with a 10-year sentence.

Yeah.

Well, you're probably not going to do the whole 10.

Right.

Right? You're going to be out at some point before that. But before that happens, you get 15 added on. So, all right, now you got 25. Even if you don't do the whole 25, you're still in there for much longer And that could be tough.

Yeah.

For anybody, I would think. And like you said, if he really didn't do it, okay, that would be horrible.

Yeah.

If he did it, he deserves it. The Port Charlotte Sun reported that in 1997, Robertson was sentenced for attempted murder of another inmate in Bradford County. Prior to the 2008 killing, Robertson was not scheduled to be released until 2036. So

he's in there to 2036 based on the reason he went to prison and the 15 years that he got for the other murder. And this is a third murder.

Yeah. Right. So we didn't say it was in 2008. I just said it. Right. But he said he was falsely accused of killing an inmate. Um, But he was also put on long-term management, which is basically another term for solitary confinement. That, that's tough, I think, for a lot of people.

Yeah.

Now, I'm sure there are some people who might be okay with it. You know, they're okay with being by themselves, maybe reading books or magazines or whatever it is. But for a lot of people, that could really drive you up a wall.

It— I would not do well. That's too much isolation.

Yeah. Now, in prison, I wouldn't do well either way. But here, I'm okay with some solitary confinement.

Yeah.

As long as I have my television, my Xbox, things like that. I'm okay being by myself.

But you don't have anybody tapping you on the shoulder a couple times throughout the day. Hey,

can you do this? Can you do

that? Yeah.

When speaking with producers of the show I Am a Killer, Robertson was 54 years old and he had been in prison for 37 years. He said it was inhumane that while in close management, he sat in his cell all day. He witnessed other inmates being removed from close management, but he felt that prison staff would use any excuse to keep him there. 37 years is a long time.

It's a really long time.

But if he killed someone, then he has to serve the punishment for what he did.

I mean, think about that. At that point, 37 years, it's almost pretty close to double the amount of time that he lived outside of the prison.

Yeah, it's even more.

Yeah. He

was only 17 when he went in. In the show, he explained that he had few privileges. He said, They took everything from me, like the TV. That's torture. You're locked in a cell all day. You might get to come out a couple of times a week for like 2 hours or something like that. And they'll put you in a little dog cage. You just lose all motivation. You ain't getting no sun, really.

Yeah, but they did that because of things you did while you were in there.

Right. But now he says he didn't do it.

It was.

So that's the whole dichotomy here. He believed that the accommodations on death row would be better. In his words, he said, I got to the point where I said, fuck this shit, I'm going to death row. In 2008, Robertson was moved into a shared close management cell with inmate Frank Hart. 52-year-old Hart was originally from Virginia. He was convicted of sexual battery in 1994 in Volusia County. According to the show I Am a Killer, the crime involved a child, which we've discussed it many times, right? Hurting a child, sexually assaulting a child, and all kinds of different things are looked down upon in prison. You could have murdered 20 people.

Right.

and not be looked down upon in the same way that a rapist is, or someone especially who hurts children.

A child. Yeah.

And this guy, according to the show, did that. Robertson decided he was going to kill his cellmate because he felt confident he could overpower Hart.

Well, that'd be step one. You know,

you got to size the person up.

Exactly.

If you're gonna take them on. Now, I feel like you're in a cell with someone, you are so vulnerable. Whoever goes to sleep first, right, is extremely vulnerable.

Not even. I mean, what if you go to sleep last but they wake up before you?

Okay, yeah, I see what you're saying. I mean, whoever is asleep, let's put it that way.

I, I'd have to like find a way to sleep, but yet still have one eye open.

Well, you're not at summer camp, okay, with your best friend.

Yeah,

you are in a cell with one or more people who have probably done some pretty terrible things.

Yeah.

And you're just sleeping in, you know, your bed next to this— or not next to, but below or above, or, you know, depending on how many people are in the room.

I think that's why a lot of people like the top bunk, because at least you can might hear them coming up to get you instead of being down on the bottom bunk where, you know,

I don't know, on the top they could just grab you by the leg and pull you off.

That's true too.

You land hard.

Yeah, there's no, no good scenario.

There is no good scenario. And that's why, you know, nobody really wants to go to prison.

Yeah.

And why you should, uh, not do things that'll put you there. Robertson told the show I Am a Killer Believe me, it was premeditated all the way. On December 10th, 2008, James Robertson strangled Frank Hart to death with a garrote, or garrote depending on how you want to say it, made of socks. Okay, you got to work with what you have.

Yeah, you got limitations in there for a reason,

right? You don't have wire and 2 paintbrush handles to Uh, form a garrote or anything like that. Robertson recalled that he waited until the guard made his rounds past their cell. He said he had a 25-minute window of opportunity. He got behind Hart and nudged him to wake him up. He said to him, you gonna let me tie you up or am I gonna kill you? Hart replied, neither. Yeah, I don't know what you would— how, how are you supposed to answer that question? Yeah.

Yeah,

because neither one of them is, is good. So they got into a struggle, but Robertson overpowered and strangled him. According to him, it took 5 to 6 minutes.

I mean, it doesn't sound like that long of an amount of time. I mean, for, for Hart, it probably was.

Well, but you know, killers always say— stranglers, right? They always say it takes much longer than what you see in TV shows and movies,

right? You

know, they're not gonna wait 6 minutes of a, a TV show to show somebody strangling someone, but it can take that long.

Yeah, I mean, they're gonna, they're gonna fight you, they're gonna struggle, um, there's gonna be a lot of kicking, you know, a lot of, uh, weird noises.

And this was such a strange interview for anybody who's seen the show or decides to watch it. Because after he said this, he kind of laughed.

Yeah.

And he said, I don't feel bad about it. And you can tell he didn't.

Because he was a child killer?

I know. I think it was more because he did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Yeah.

He wanted the death penalty.

Okay. So he felt good about it. It got him what he wanted.

And maybe, maybe that was part of it, what you said, but I think it was more this, this other thing.

Yeah.

Robertson was removed from close management on the day of the murder. To authorities, it appeared that there was no provocation or fight beforehand. And the wild thing, Gibbs, is that Frank Hart was killed just 8 days before his scheduled release.

Yeah. Well, I mean, child killer, wasn't he?

No, he— I don't know, he hurt a child.

Oh, he hurt a child.

I think it was a sexual—

Oh.

Crime, which is horrible.

Horrible. Yeah.

In and of itself. But if he had killed a child, I don't think he would have been getting out.

Yeah.

Following Hart's death, Robertson was transferred to the state prison where he remained while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted an investigation. On June 11th, 2009, Robertson was charged with second-degree murder, an offense not punishable by death.

It's almost like they spited him. Like, we, we knew what he was trying to do. Maybe let's not give it to him.

Yeah, because this definitely seems to be first-degree murder,

right?

You know, he's even admitting it later on. This was definitely premeditated. Now maybe they thought, okay, There was some type of fight. They got into it and, um, one person got overpowered the other. And okay, it's not first degree, but according to an article by the Port Charlotte Sun, months before his death, Hart told a behavioral health specialist that he was fearful of his cellmate, claiming Robertson threatened to harm him if he walked too loud. Per court documents, Hart never forwarded those concerns to prison security nor requested to be moved. In May 2011, Robertson contended he was legally insane at the time of the murder. So I— this guy is weeks away, right, from getting out. I don't know how long this was going on before he was killed, but he obviously wasn't gelling.

Yeah,

with Robertson in this small prison cell, you know, I'm gonna kill you if you walk too loud. There's— it couldn't have been a good scenario.

I mean, based on that line right there, your wife wouldn't last very long in prison.

No, because she is a loud walker.

She is.

But, uh, you know, I'm also not a killer, or I would never harm my wife, but, uh,

Yeah,

she is a loud walker.

But in this case here, I mean, if someone said that to me, I'd always think I'd be on guard because I'd be like, wait, I'm too loud? That's what you're saying? I walk too loud? And if I keep it up, you're going to kill me?

Well, you're going to be on guard anyway, though, right? You are in prison.

But I think you're going to be even on— even

more so, right? Yeah. You're raising the DEFCON level up.

Yeah.

Right after a comment like that, Robertson's attorney, Jay Brazell, argued in his notice of intent to raise an insanity defense that Robertson was placed in a high-stress situation at the facility, which mentally overcame him and contributed to the defendant acting in a manner inconsistent with sanity. So what's he saying? That basically they put him in a position that he couldn't deal with.

Yeah.

That he was ill-equipped to deal with, and that contributed to him, uh, not being sane at the time he killed this man.

But doesn't that go against what he wants though, at the end of the day?

Well, but they've already said that he can't, he can't get first degree, can't get the death penalty.

Okay. So,

so I don't know. I don't think this kind of worked out the way that he thought it would. But prosecutors sought an enhanced sentence through the state's reoffender sentencing laws. According to court records, Robertson had written several letters to the state attorney's office where he confessed to the killing and detailed how he committed the crime. So he wasn't shying away from it. He wasn't saying, well, I didn't do it, or I was provoked. It's— and it's because he was determined to get the death penalty.

He wanted it.

Yeah.

I think as a— as an attorney, that would be hard to sit there with your client, you know, like, hey, so we can do this, you know, get this taken care of. Don't That way you don't have to worry about doing all this extra time. And then your client be like, no, I, I want them to put me to death.

Well, it's hard to defend somebody like that.

Yeah.

Right. They're not gonna go along with any of the different options that, that you put forth. In 2011, Robertson stabbed a prison guard and attempted to get the guard's keys so he could kill another inmate, according to reports. The guard did not give him the keys. So Robertson was charged with attempted second-degree murder in connection with this incident. He said he would be forced to kill again unless the court agreed to put him on death row.

He's bound and determined.

Well, what do you do with a guy like that? He, he basically is going to keep trying to kill people until he gets what he wants.

Yeah.

And he wants to be on death row. I mean, it

sounds like he's got to be placed in isolation 24/7, right?

He can't be around other inmates. And I don't know how you do that. I'm sure they have a way in prison to do that. But it's a very tough situation, right? You think about society, how do we function? Well, most people don't do things that are illegal because they don't want to face the consequences. That, and maybe they have a good moral compass, right? Right. You'd like to think that as well. But there's also an element of, you know, you don't steal because you don't want to get caught. You don't want to, you know, serve time or have something on your record. But there is, I think for a lot of people in prison, something similar. You might be forced to do something, But you don't want to catch extra charges.

Yeah.

Especially if you have a chance to get out one day, right? You might go before the parole board or you know you're going to. So you want to do the least amount of time possible. But here's a guy that's on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. He wants to go to death row and there's only one way to get there. And it's to get a first-degree murder charge that is punishable by the death penalty.

Yeah. So he's a risk to everybody because he's the type of guy that as soon as you move him, he might try to jump a guard. Yeah. Or another inmate or whatever, right? To hopefully, you know, for him, hopefully he's trying to take it to the next level to catch that charge. Well,

and let's face it, he has all day. to sit around and plan or look at weaknesses or vulnerabilities and plot. He's got nothing else to do. On October 4th, 2012, Robertson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of his cellmate. And I can imagine, Gibbs, that was not hard to get him to do.

I'm sure he's like, uh, how do you plead guilty?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, first-degree murder? Yes, that is exactly what He wanted— the Florida Department of Corrections was instructed to prepare a pre-sentence investigation, or PSI, of James Robertson, which played a key role in his sentencing. The report was compiled by Mike Gottfried from the Department of Corrections. He sought to understand and obtain information about Robertson's background by interviewing. Gottfried told the show I Am a Killer that Robertson was cooperative when speaking about his background. He said violence is a part of James Robertson because violence was a part of his upbringing.

It's all he knew, kind of.

Well, he described how Robertson was hit by, uh, with switches by his parents. His parents also divorced and remarried. Now, you and I have talked about this though. I was whipped with switches.

Yeah.

And you were too,

right?

My parents also divorced and remarried. Now, there are different extents, right, to what punishment can go. Did I like being hit by a switch? No, I didn't. Nobody likes to be spanked. Was it all the time? No, it was when I did something that my grandfather didn't think I should have done.

Right.

And he was old school and he'd make me go get my own switch and then he'd swap me with it and it hurt. But I guess I say that because there are a lot of people who go through certain things, right, in their childhood or who have gone through those things. A lot of people's parents have divorced. They don't go on to just do horrible things.

No.

But some do. I just wonder if You know, we were professionals, or the killers themselves sometimes look at that as kind of a, what, almost a scapegoat type thing.

An excuse.

And they're looking to blame someone or something.

Yeah, yeah. They don't— they just don't want to put it all on them directly.

Or take any of it.

Well, that's true.

In some cases. Godfried said his charges escalated from shoplifting at age 12 to burglary. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison just before he turned 17. We talked about that. Godfried wondered if the courts could have gone another way and focused on rehabilitation since Robertson was a juvenile at the time.

I mean, that's a possibility at that younger age.

Yeah,

you know,

it is. I mean, it's, it's something to think about. In his PSI report, Godfried recommended the death penalty. And I don't know how you really couldn't, kind of taking everything into consideration, right? Obviously it's first-degree murder. It was premeditated. He did it because he wanted the death penalty.

Yeah.

If you don't give it to him, he's just going to kill somebody else, right? At some point in time. He's going

to keep trying until you do give him what he wants, or you lock him away somewhere by isolation for 24/7 until he dies at old age.

Which I, I don't even know is possible. I don't know how you do that where he's not interacting with guards or something. On December 18th, 2012, a judge sentenced Robertson to death. When issuing the sentence, Judge Christine Greider Said the court weighed a number of factors prior to making the decision, including Robertson's long criminal history. Greider also took into account his childhood, which she said was mired by violence and drug use. She felt that Robertson would never have a chance at a normal life.

No, he's been in prison more than he's been outside of prison.

Yeah. Um, and he's also a guy who is actively trying to get the death penalty.

Yeah.

That, that's not a person who you could say has a chance to be, you know, a productive member of society or can lead a normal life, because most people just don't think like that.

No.

According to the Port Charlotte Sun, which reported on details of the sentencing hearing, Robertson told investigators and medical experts after the murder of Frank Hart that he gave Hart 2 options: torture and death, or just straight death. Hart pleaded for his life, screaming for help from his cell before Robertson strangled him with a pair of socks.

Okay. You just want plain death or you want some torture and death?

Um, I, it, it's not a good choice to have to make.

No.

Neither one is great.

I feel like in that environment, maybe if you pick torture, you have a chance of being rescued.

Yeah, or maybe a chance to see an opening where you can fight back or, or something like that. But I think it just kind of— it just shows you. He woke this guy up, said, hey, are you gonna let me tie you up? The guy says, nope. And he said, okay, what do you want? Torture and death or just straight death? He was intent on killing this man and then hoping to get the death penalty. There's just no doubt about

it. Yeah, this is his way out of his curtain, out of his current situation.

Yeah, that's what he thought. Robertson had become depressed and he spent most of his time in close management, living apart from other inmates, and felt that he had nothing to live for. Given the circumstances and his past, Judge Greider said the death penalty was not disproportionate with his request and sentenced him to death.

Yeah, I mean, part of me feels like, you know, the judge knows this is what he wants and You don't want to reward that type of behavior, but if you don't, are you not putting your own guards and even other inmates at risk? Because he'll keep— you have to assume he'll keep doing this until he gets what he wants.

Yeah. I don't know why you would think any other way.

Yeah.

This is a guy who said, I want the death penalty. Why would you not think he's going to keep hurting people until somebody ultimately gives him what he wants? I Am a Killer interviewed corrections nurse Anne Otwell, who described how death row differs from close management. She explained that the rules and regulations of death row are simple. She described the difference between death row and close management as going from the slums to Beverly Hills. That's a kind of an interesting perspective.

Yeah, it is.

Apparently death row inmates in Florida, they have a TV, they have their own bedspread if they choose, they get different food, they have their own nurse, and they have their own quiet exercise area.

Bedspread, huh?

She added, surprising enough, they have this camaraderie with one another that they're all there together. And so death row for them is a safe haven. But the other thing is, in their mind's eye, they know they're not going to be executed tomorrow. They know that they're going to be there for maybe 25 years.

Yeah.

So they know they're not going to be going any place but the row. They've come home. And that's how the majority of them look at it. They love death row.

It's kind of like their own, uh, apartment complex.

Well, when you think about it, would you rather be in a situation where you're isolated. Now, he wasn't at the time of the killing. He was with somebody else in the cell, but he spent a lot of time in isolation. He, he said it, right? No TV, uh, just not much to look forward to. On death row, you're getting apparently better food. You have your own television, not just a communal television. Um, and it sounds like People there were pretty good to each other because they were all in the same boat.

So nobody trying to kill anybody else.

Why would you? Everybody's gonna die. So, uh, you know, what's there to fight about? On July 10th, 2014, the Florida Supreme Court decided that Robertson's public defenders would not be allowed to withdraw as his counsel. Counsel representing Robertson pointed out that he wanted to be executed and wished not to appeal, citing rules by the Florida Bar requiring lawyers to abide by their clients' decisions. His counsel sought to withdraw— withdraw from

Boston. No, these apples—

where did that come from?

I don't know.

They sought to withdraw to avoid allegations of violating ethical responsibility to the counsel's client. But in a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Robertson's current counsel must continue to represent him. So that— it's an interesting thing.

Yeah.

Right? He wanted the death penalty. He got the death penalty. He certainly doesn't want to appeal that sentence. He doesn't want it overturned. But yet he has court-appointed attorneys who are required to fight for him.

Sure.

And they're like, why are we doing this? He doesn't want us to do this.

Yeah.

And the Supreme Court says, don't care, still have

to do it.

You still got to do it. Justice Barbara Parente wrote that the American Bar Association Standards for Criminal Justice and Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in death penalty cases specifically explained that a defendant's stated desire to plead guilty or be executed cannot form the basis for an attorney's competent representation, representation of the defendant. Justice Charles Kennedy, dissenting, wrote that the majority's decision unjustifiably infringes on Mr. Robertson's right to make the fundamental decision of whether to pursue the appeal of his death sentence, as well as his right to a lawyer who will follow the ethical imperative to abide by Mr. Robertson's decision concerning the objectives of representation. So I get it. There, there wasn't, uh, full agreement, and there very rarely is, right? Whether it's the, the Florida Supreme Court or a state Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court. But it's interesting to kind of read these and look at how the court views certain things and how they rule. This guy's saying that he should have the right to say, I don't want to appeal. This is what I want. Yeah, I'm fine with it.

I'm happy. Yeah,

yeah,

I'm good. Don't spend any more money on me.

But he was a dissenting vote. He didn't You know, he wasn't on the winning side. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed Robertson's conviction and death sentence in 2016. On October 1st, 2026, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for James Robertson. His execution was scheduled for October 13th. As noted by NBC, Robertson's execution, the first in Florida since the Christa Pike execution, comes at a time of escalating attention on the death penalty in the United States. The Pentagon also announced earlier this month that it would livestream the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan. Because of the timing, Robertson's execution was compared to the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee on September 30th. Before Robertson's execution, Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson Jordan Kirkland said the process would be humane and dignified. And, uh, that Christa Pike debacle—

Oh man.

Was huge.

It was.

Right? Especially if, if you're a person who is against the death penalty. I mean, you're looking at, at that and saying, that's part of the reason why I'm against it.

Yep.

because of the way it's, it's carried out. Kirkland also said Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol. So basically, what is he saying? Hey, we're not Tennessee here.

Kind of exactly what they're saying.

We know how to do this.

Yeah, yeah, we got this.

And to be fair, Florida does, uh, execute quite a few people. Florida and Texas are up there, right, as far as the number of executions. 63-year-old James Robertson was pronounced dead at 12:32 PM on October 13th, 2026, at Florida State Prison. He was the 17th inmate executed by the state this year.

Wow.

17 people.

That's a lot.

Seems like a lot.

It

does. Um, I mean, it's almost, what, 1.5 per month?

Yeah.

His final meal was steak, potatoes, fried eggs, toast, and milk. And he visited with a pen pal and his cousin. All right, I, I don't need toast. I don't need milk for sure.

Yeah,

but you know, I like steak. I like steak and potatoes.

You do.

I do like fried eggs, although that probably wouldn't be a part of my final meal. I

don't think so either for me.

But I don't think they, they get you know, it's not like the old days where you can order 16 cheeseburgers and a bucket of fried chicken, right? I mean, we've read some

crazy stuff,

wild, wild last meals. I think they're pretty— I know it varies state by state. Some states you just get whatever the other inmates are eating that day.

Yeah, you don't get an option. Yeah,

but I'm, I'm sure the other inmates were not eating steak and potatoes and fried eggs. I can't imagine.

My luck, they'd be like, you get some Johnny Marzetti and a glass of milk. I don't know if you know what Johnny Marzetti is, but that was what they—

I do. I attended school.

Why did they call it Johnny Marzetti?

I don't know. That would be great. I wish somebody could answer that. I mean, different people call it different things, but I've heard it called that pretty much my entire life and never understood the meaning of it at all.

No.

When asked if he had any words, he said, nah, I'm straight. I think he was ready for this.

He's like, finally, and check out here.

This is such a bizarre case. A Gulf Coast news anchor who witnessed the execution noted that Robertson picked his head up and smiled at all the witnesses. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes later After being injected with a 3-drug cocktail, including a sedative, paralytic, and a drug to stop his heart, per an AP report. And I think that's pretty universal, right? In the lethal injection process, it's usually 3 drugs: a sedative, a paralytic, and then something to stop the heart. Frank Hart's daughter Rebecca spoke to the media outside the prison. after the execution and talked about the impact her father's death had on her. She said, 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. Other people go on with their lives, but you carry your loss into every tomorrow. She added that she hoped Robertson's death would bring her family closure. She said, I'm just praying that it does bring our entire family at least a sense of that he's gone. He's no longer there. He's not looming, uh, this looming dark cloud right over our head anymore.

And I get it. I understand what she's saying. She's talking about her father's impact or the impact of her father's death. Hard not to go back and think about the impact of the people he hurt.

Well, true.

On, on their family. Um, I, I get it. She didn't do anything wrong.

No,

this is her father. She's right to feel however she feels.

And if you— I mean, think about it, you know, the courts gave him the sentence that they felt he deserved, and he was on his way out. What, like 7 days or something like that?

8 days.

7, 8 days.

Yeah.

So

he would have been back with his family.

Yeah.

Uh, in 8 days, or whoever. I don't know what family he had if, um, you know, James Robertson had not killed him.

Did what he did.

But as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, I just thought this was such a, a wild, strange story because, yeah, you have a guy. Did he have a bad childhood? Yeah, maybe. But was it all that different from what we learned of certain aspects that a lot of us went through.

Didn't

seem to sound like it. Now, he, you know, he got into drugs, which quite a few people do.

Yeah.

I think, like you said, he did make a lot of bad decisions. How much of that was influenced by his childhood? I don't know. Was he just trying to put all the blame on that? Maybe. But I mean, how many times have we heard of someone who has not a life sentence, right? A sentence that they're going to be paroled from, meaning they're not going to serve the entire thing.

Right.

And then they make the decision that they're going to kill as many people as they have to, to get the death penalty so that they can be moved to death row, ensuring that not only do they never get out of prison, but they're, they're going to be put to death at some point.

Right.

But it was, you know, 20 years or so before it happened.

Oh, of course. Yeah.

Which they know that going in, it takes quite a while to actually execute someone. I think in his mind, He just thought that, well, if it's 10, 15, 20 years, whatever it is, I'm going to be happier on death row than I am being kept in this close management or solitary confinement situation.

Well, he gets a custom blanket, a bigger TV, and, you know, better meals. Well,

he didn't have any TV.

Well, that's true.

When he was in solitary confinement. So, um, No doubt it does sound like it's a better situation, although you are going to be put to death most likely at some point. So that, that part is not good, but they are treated a little bit better. I mean, the staff even said that.

Which is bizarre. Why are they treated better? Why not the same?

Yeah, I don't know why it's different or better, or I'm not sure. But, uh, yeah, I just— I— and this story kind of grabbed me just because of that really strange part of it where he consciously made the decision, I'm going to kill someone so that I can get to death row. But that's it for our episode on James Robertson and, uh, another episode of True Crime All the Time. So for Mike—

And Gibby.

Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.