63-year-old James Robertson aka "Chicken Head" Photo: Florida Department of Corrections photo
(Starke, FL) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signing a 19th death warrant this time for 63-year-old James "Chicken Head" Robertson.
He's one of two death row inmates set to die on October 13th for the 2008 murder of his cellmate, Frank Hart.
Robertson had been in and out of prison for 28 years at the time he strangled Hart with a garrote made of socks.
"According to Robertson's admissions, there was no provocation or fight that led to the murder," Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote in a letter to DeSantis on Thursday. "Robertson stated that he murdered his cellmate so that he would be charged with first-degree murder and be sentenced to death."
Robertson will be the 17th inmate killed by the state this year, bypassing two others already awaiting execution.
Meanwhile, another execution is also scheduled for William Lee Thompson the same day at 6 p.m.
However, concerns about Thompson's mental health and physical condition have temporarily stayed his execution.
If both proceed, this will be the second time this year that Florida has carried out two executions on the same day.
With the latest botched execution in Tennessee, it's important to note that Florida uses a different approach for lethal injection employing a unique three-drug cocktail while Tennessee typically uses a single-drug pentobarbital protocol.