Florida has scheduled two lethal injection executions for October 13 at the Florida State Prison in Starke, although one of them is temporarily on hold while it is determined whether the inmate is mentally competent to be executed.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the execution order for James "Chicken Head" Robertson, 63 years old, who is set to be executed at noon for the murder of his cellmate Frank Hart in 2008, according to reported by FOX 35 Orlando.
The order is number 19 signed by DeSantis in 2026, matching the record set by Florida last year.
Robertson pleaded guilty to having strangled Hart with a garrote at the Charlotte Correctional Institution and was sentenced to death in December 2012.
According to the court records cited by the outlet, he admitted that he deliberately killed his cellmate because he wanted to receive a death sentence.
The case gained notoriety outside the courts when Robertson appeared in 2018 in the Netflix documentary series I Am a Killer.
In the episode dedicated to his story, he recounted that he committed the crime after spending years in isolation and because he believed that the conditions on death row would be better.
Robertson had been entering and exiting prison for decades due to previous offenses. When he killed Hart, he had spent approximately 28 years incarcerated. The Florida Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 2016.
For 6:00 p.m. on the same October 13, the execution of William Lee Thompson, 74 years old, sentenced for the murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault of Sally Ivester, which took place in 1976 in North Miami Beach, was scheduled.
However, that second procedure currently carries an additional uncertainty.
DeSantis temporarily suspended Thompson's execution so that a commission of three psychiatrists can determine whether he has the necessary mental competency to be executed, after his lawyers raised concerns about potential cognitive decline and his health condition.
The original order against Thompson was signed on September 11. The condemned has been on death row for over four decades for the crime committed in Miami-Dade.
If deemed competent and the suspension is lifted, its execution could be set for 6:00 p.m. on October 13.
If both are carried out, it would be the second day of double execution in Florida during 2026. The state already conducted two lethal injections on July 28, when it executed James Aren Duckett first and, about five hours later, Dominick Anthony Occhicone.
That day was exceptional: Florida had not scheduled two executions in a single day since 1964.
Duckett, a former police officer, had been convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, while Occhicone was sentenced for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents.
Florida has maintained one of the highest execution rates in the country throughout 2026. Three executions were scheduled for September alone: those of Harold Gene Lucas, Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., and Curtis Wilkie Beasley.
Lucas was executed on September 1, Conahan on the 10th, and Beasley on the 29th, bringing Florida to 16 executions carried out in 2026. Robertson, if his sentence is carried out as expected, would be the 17th of the year.
In addition to Robertson and Thompson, the state has scheduled the execution of William Reaves, 77 years old, for October 20, convicted of killing Indian River County officer Richard Raczkowski in 1986.
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