Christa Pike survives botched execution as Tennessee governor orders review
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an independent review after death row inmate Christa Pike survived two lethal-injection attempts and was left in critical condition. Criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Josh Ritter joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” to discuss the legal consequences of the failed execution.
A Florida man who said he killed his cellmate in an effort to receive a death sentence was executed Tuesday.
James Robertson, 63, died at Florida State Prison after being given a three-drug lethal injection. Officials pronounced him dead about 10 minutes after the execution began.
Robertson declined to make a formal final statement when asked whether he had any last words.
“Nah, I’m straight,” he replied.
James Robertson, who said he killed his cellmate specifically to receive a death sentence, was executed Tuesday. (Florida Department of Corrections)
Robertson’s execution came two weeks after the botched attempt to execute Christa Pike in Tennessee. Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was taken to a hospital. She has since been released and returned to prison.
“Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol,” Jordan Kirkland, a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections, said at a news conference before the execution.
Kirkland said he could not comment on Tennessee’s lethal-injection procedures but insisted Florida would ensure the execution was carried out in a “humane and dignified” manner.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, the state’s execution protocol uses three drugs: a sedative, a paralytic and a medication intended to stop the heart.
Robertson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for strangling his cellmate, Frank Hart, while he slept in 2008. He waived his appeals and told investigators he committed the killing because he wanted a death sentence rather than spending the rest of his life in prison.
Hart was killed just eight days before he was scheduled to be released, his daughter, Rebecca Hart, said. She stressed that her father’s life should not be reduced to Robertson’s case.
“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,” she told reporters outside the prison. “Other people go on with their lives, but you carry your loss into every tomorrow.”
Hart was sent to prison in 2003 after being convicted of sexual battery.
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James Robertson, 63, died after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, file)
Robertson was 17 when he entered prison in 1980 after being convicted of burglary and assault. Later convictions for escape, battery and weapons offenses lengthened his time behind bars.
Florida had initially planned to execute two people Tuesday. However, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew the death warrant for William Lee Thompson, 74, the previous week. Thompson was sentenced to death for his role in the 1976 kidnapping and killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester. He was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in connection with her death.
DeSantis did not explain why he halted the execution. He had temporarily stayed it the previous month while Thompson underwent a psychiatric evaluation, amid concerns about his mental competency and declining health. Thompson’s attorneys said he has dementia and serious health problems and are seeking his transfer to a medical facility.
It was the first time DeSantis had withdrawn a death warrant. Thompson remains on death row, and the governor could issue a new warrant in the future.
DeSantis is the third Florida governor to sign a death warrant for Thompson. Former Govs. Bob Graham and Bob Martinez also scheduled his execution in the 1980s, but years of appeals and stays kept him from facing the electric chair, Florida’s execution method at the time.
In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first time a state has done so in nearly a decade.
Florida has accelerated its pace of executions amid a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis since 2025. The governor oversaw a record 19 executions last year, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, accounting for approximately 40% of the U.S. total for 2025.
James Robertson’s execution contrasted with the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee two weeks earlier. (Greg Smith/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images ; Tennessee Department of Correction via AP)
Last year, 47 executions were carried out nationwide, the highest annual total since 2009.
Florida has carried out more than half of the 31 total executions in the country so far this year.
Robertson was the Sunshine State’s 17th execution of 2026, with two more already scheduled, not including Thompson.
William Reaves, 77, who was convicted of fatally shooting a deputy in 1986, is scheduled to be executed Oct. 20. Jesse Guardado, 64, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 5 for robbing and killing a woman to buy drugs in 2004.