Florida carries out execution after botched Tennessee attempt

Florida put to death a convicted murderer in the state’s first execution since September’s botched attempt involving Christa Pike in Tennessee, on Tuesday.Officials said James Robertson, 63, was pronounced dead after he received a three-shot series of lethal injections at a Florida state prison in Raiford.“The sentence of the state of Florida versus James Robertson was carried out at 12.32pm [Tuesday],” a state corrections department spokesperson, Jordan Kirkland, said at a news conference immediately afterwards.“The execution took place without incident.”Florida’s use of the Death Penalty has come under increased scrutiny since the failed 30 September effort by authorities in Tennessee to kill Pike with two doses of pentobarbital. Pike was discharged from the hospital on Saturday and returned to prison, 10 days after officials were forced to abandon the attempt.Robertson, who was convicted of the 2008 killing of a cellmate, was the 17th prisoner executed by the state in 2026.A second execution planned for Tuesday was called off after Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, on Friday withdrew the death warrant he previously signed for William Lee Thompson, 74, who kidnapped and murdered a 23-year-old woman in 1976.Robertson’s execution resumed the aggressive use of the Death Penalty pursued by DeSantis, who is going to be out of office in January.William Reaves, 77, is scheduled to die on 20 October for the 1986 murder of a sheriff’s deputy in Indian River county. And Jesse Guardado, 64, is set to be executed on 5 November for murdering a 74-year-old woman in Walton county in 2004.If both proceed as planned, Florida will tie its 2025 modern-day record of 19 executions in a calendar year.DeSantis issued an executive order on Friday withdrawing the death warrant for Thompson, who was set to die several hours after Robertson’s scheduled noon execution. DeSantis’s order cited a medical evaluation and assessment by his lawyer that “Thompson may be insane.”Attorneys for Thompson claim he is suffering from dementia and believed George W Bush was still president. He remains on death row, and a new death warrant could still be signed.Robertson’s execution took place after a circuit court in Charlotte county accepted his 5 October request to withdraw all appeals. He pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of his cellmate, Frank Hart, at the Charlotte correction institution near Fort Myers – and confessed he committed the crime unprovoked because he wanted to be on death row.Kirkland was asked at a pre-execution press conference how prison authorities could guarantee there would be no repeat of Tennessee’s botched attempt to kill Pike.“Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol,” he said, adding that he could not speak about what happened in Tennessee. “We are very committed to carrying that out in a humane and dignified manner.”All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state corrections department’s website.Tennessee authorities have yet to announce if they plan on seeking another execution date for Pike. Her lawyers have asked for her sentence for the 1995 murder of a 19-year-old classmate to be commuted to life without parole.Robertson was 17 when he was sentenced to prison in 1980 for burglary and assault. He received more prison time for several more assaults he committed while incarcerated.Hart, his victim, was imprisoned in 2003 for a sexual battery conviction. Hart’s daughter Rebecca, who witnessed Tuesday’s execution, broke down in tears as she spoke at the media briefing.“Nothing that had happened today will bring my father back,” she said. “I need to honor him, to speak his name, and to make sure that the man at the center of the story is not forgotten.“Today, through all the pain, I’m here for my daddy.”Independent journalist John Koch, who said he has witnessed more than 100 Florida executions, told YouTube channel JLR Investigates that Robertson replied: “Nah, I’m straight,” when asked if he had any final words.Koch said the execution process took about 10 minutes – and that Robertson looked around the room and acknowledged people in the gallery before the first injection was administered.The Associated Press contributed to this report