Florida prisons got so bad that an inmate strangled his cellmate with socks just to get sent to death row.
Now Ron DeSantis just signed the warrant to make sure he gets exactly what he asked for.
What James Robertson told Netflix cameras about killing Frank Hart is something DeSantis just made sure he can never walk back.
He Confessed to Netflix Before DeSantis Could Sign the Warrant
Robertson didn't hide it.
In 2018, he sat down with Netflix cameras for the documentary series I Am a Killer and told the world exactly what he did and why.
He was in solitary confinement at Charlotte Correctional Institution.
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He decided the conditions were too bad.
So he made a garrote out of socks and strangled his cellmate, Frank Hart, to death.
"According to Robertson's admissions, there was no provocation or fight that led to the murder," Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote to DeSantis Thursday. "Robertson stated that he murdered his cellmate so that he would be charged with first-degree murder and be sentenced to death."
He killed an innocent man – a fellow inmate named Frank Hart who had done nothing to him – to get a better room.
DeSantis Is Running Out the Clock on Death Row
Robertson will be the 17th inmate Florida executes this year.
That number is staggering.
In 2026, Florida has carried out more executions than every other state in America combined.
DeSantis set an all-time state record of 19 executions in 2025, more than doubling Florida's previous post-1976 record of eight in a single year.
Now, with three months left in 2026, he's running right toward the record again.
October 13th won't just be Robertson's day.
https://twitter.com/CBSMiami/status/2105897069344952593?s=20
At noon, Robertson dies.
Six hours later, 74-year-old William Lee Thompson faces lethal injection for kidnapping, ra*ing, and murdering Sally Ivester in North Miami Beach – a crime he committed in 1976.
Thompson has been on death row for 50 years.
Sally Ivester's family has waited 50 years.
DeSantis is making sure they don't wait any longer.
Robertson Got the Death Row He Wanted and DeSantis Is Delivering It
Robertson's story breaks something in your brain.
He killed a man – deliberately, cold-bloodedly, as a lifestyle strategy.
"I got put on some kind of like long-term maximum-security status, where you're locked in a cell all the time," Robertson said of conditions at Charlotte Correctional in the documentary-style show. "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 times a week for like two 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."
He sat on camera years later and described how long it took.
"Four minutes, maybe," he told the Netflix producers.
He said he didn't feel bad about it.
Now he'll find out that Florida doesn't feel bad about it either.
The Left is calling DeSantis' pace an "unprecedented escalation."
Good.
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Frank Hart is dead because the prison system failed to protect him from a calculating predator who murdered him for better living conditions.
The least the State of Florida can do is make sure Robertson keeps his appointment with justice – and that the man who raped and murdered Sally Ivester in 1976 doesn't outlive her by another decade.
DeSantis said it plainly: "There are some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty."
A man who strangled his cellmate to death with socks – on camera, without remorse – qualifies.
October 13th can't come fast enough.
Sources:
- James Uthmeier, "Attorney General Letter to Governor DeSantis," Florida Office of the Attorney General, October 2, 2026.
- WTVT/News Service of Florida, "DeSantis signs death warrant for inmate featured in Netflix series, schedules double execution day," Fox 13 Tampa Bay, October 2, 2026.
- Karen Curtis, "Florida Plans to Execute 2 Death Row Inmates on Same Day Again," October 2, 2026.
- "New Netflix documentary series gives voice to death row inmates," I Am a Killer review, DePaulia, 2018.
