NARRATOR: In the United
States of America, some of the world's
most notorious criminals are locked behind bars. One of those is James Robertson. He was sent to prison for
violent crimes at an early age. He wasn't 17 yet. He commits serious offenses--
aggravated battery, assaults on law enforcement officers. NARRATOR: He is a criminal
who has refused to comply. He escaped with
his co-defendant, and they were caught. And now he faced another
case, another charge, and he got two more
years consecutive. He met criteria
for psychopathy. That means that engaging
in criminal activity he had very little remorse and very
little empathy for all of those acts he engaged in. NARRATOR: Now behind bars,
Robertson has targeted those working in the jail. I was stabbed in the
center of the chest, and then he stabbed me one
more time in the stomach. They are people
that would kill you as soon as you
open your mouth if you said something wrong. You have to be trained for. And if you're not, you're
going to end up dead. NARRATOR: He is one
of the most feared men in the US prison system. He's going to be
in danger with anyone he comes into contact
with because he's so focused on serving his own
needs that it really doesn't matter who is in his way. He actually
confronted his cellmate and said to him, I'm going
to give you a choice. I can tie you up and torture
you, or I can kill you. NARRATOR: Locked away for
life, he has nothing to lose. He started at a young age, and
it just went from bad to worse. Anybody can be
collateral damage, and that's what makes him one
of the most dangerous prisoners. He had choked him
with dental floss, and then he finished
with a sock. He's sitting
there with a corpse. He's eating breakfast, and
he's just sitting there. NARRATOR: Charlotte Correctional
Institute is a state prison in Florida, United States. Charlotte
Correctional was a very, very difficult, tough prison. The environment for
me working there was the closest thing
to being in hell. The smell-- the inmates
constantly masturbated. They were shouting. They were banging. They were flooding their cells. It was very, very difficult. NARRATOR: On one
floor of the prison are a group of
prisoners so dangerous they are under watch 24/7. These aren't just inmates
who have assaulted, murdered, and raped in the community. These are inmates that continue
to assault and rape and murder while they're in prison. So they require a high
level of security, a high level of monitoring. NARRATOR: James
Robertson is one of them. Robertson is probably
one of the most dangerous inmates in the
United States prison system. He's going to be a
danger to inmates. He's going to be
a danger to staff. He's going to be a danger
to correction officers. December 19, 2011,
when I came to work and my life changed forever. During my shift, I
was walking my rounds. James Robertson was in
his cell and asked me to take the trash out for him. I made a mistake, and
opened his cell door, and was actually attacked
and stabbed by James. He was incarcerated, I
believe, at the age of 16. Initially, they were
non-violent crimes, but he quickly
escalated to violence. He commits serious offenses--
burglary of a structure, aggravated assault on a
law enforcement officer, aggravated battery. He was originally sentenced
to 10 years in prison, but once he was
incarcerated, he decided that he wanted to
go to death row, and so he decided to murder
his cellmate in order to get the death penalty. My name is Ann
Atwell, and I've been at Charlotte Correctional
as a forensic mental health nurse for 30 years. When I first met
James, he was angry. He had been in prison for
many years, many years. He had a rap sheet
that was unbelievable. While he was in the
prison, he committed some pretty bad crimes-- first degree attempted
murder, aggravated battery. He never stopped. Consecutive sentence after
consecutive sentence, no stop, and then plotting out a murder. Because that's what he did. He was probably able to
engage in assaults and murder with little to no feeling of
any kind of empathy or remorse around that. Anyone who can commit
the crimes he did and not be fazed and continue
to commit these crimes, what does he have to lose? NARRATOR: Before James
Robertson was first imprisoned, he had lived in
Florida his whole life. James Robertson was born in
Orlando, Florida May 26, 1963. The family ties were not good. It was not what you'd call
a "Brady Bunch" family. My name is Mike Gottfried. I was an officer for the
Department of Corrections for a period of 23 years. James Robertson told me
that his father beat him. He told me his father
was an alcoholic. He told me his mother
was an alcoholic. He told me his brothers had
been in the prison system. Robertson had a very
tumultuous childhood. He also had a history of abuse. His father used to
beat him physically. In addition, he came from a very
low socioeconomic background. He had a lot of
poverty, and he was not placed in the best schools. He also started engaging in
drug use at a very early age. These are all risk factors
for James Robertson to go on and engage
in criminal activity at a very early age, which
is exactly what he did. On February 25 of 1975,
he commits shoplifting. Not a real serious crime. Kids do that all the time. He had started his
crimes at 12 years old, and it just went
from bad to worse. NARRATOR: Robertson was
hardly ever at school. Instead, he chose
to spend his time hanging out in his neighborhood,
robbing anyone and anything. He had so far managed to
avoid a custodial sentence. It's like you're
skating on ice, but it's starting to splinter. The fact that he does
one thing in January and another thing in
February sends me the message that he doesn't care. Where is anybody
to sit him down? Where is the juvenile
counselor to sit him down and speak to
him and tell him this is not going to end well? The brain doesn't fully
develop until the age of 24. Some of these juveniles tend to
act out, which ultimately ends up having early contact
with law enforcement, getting arrested
at an early age, and it just becomes
a pattern ending up in correctional
facilities as opposed to getting the
help they require. NARRATOR: In 1978, when
Robertson was just 14 years old, a violent
attack on three youths saw him back in court. This was a juvenile
case in Orange County. It was three counts
of aggravated battery, and that's serious because
you have victim injury. One of the youths had a cut
and abrasions on his neck. One was hit in
the chest, and one was hit under the right eye
and the top of the right foot and right leg. He's found guilty of two counts. He was committed
to Youth Services for an indeterminate sentence. NARRATOR: Less than a year
later, Robertson was kicked out of the school, and it was
not long before he was back in trouble with the law. He wasn't 17 yet. He would be 17 in a
couple of weeks, May 26. He commits serious offenses--
burglary of a structure. He went in to steal something. The cops came. He threatened the officers. He committed aggravated
assault, two counts. Don't forget, he
burglarized a building. So we don't know what
he had in his hand. And he said, you come near me,
and I'm going to do so and so. Well, you just jumped
it up to aggravated. Now you have a
third degree felony. Those are serious crimes. NARRATOR: Robertson was seen
as a volatile and dangerous individual. He was securely locked away
in an adult institution for the first time. And he was sentenced each
count four years state prison. Normally, it's concurrent. This judge made it consecutive. So now he's got eight years. You don't go to
prison right away, so he was sent to
the county jail. The county jails are
for pretrial detainees or people who have a
sense of less than a year. People usually think that
a county jail is where it's smaller crimes and
things like that, but we actually have a
wide array of inmates there, very wide
spectrum, including people who are on death row
or doing life sentences. He's in the county jail. You think he would learn. No, no. Not him. NARRATOR: After being behind
bars for just three months, Robertson had had enough
and plotted an escape. He escaped with
his co-defendant, and they were caught. And now he faced another
case, another charge, and he got two more
years consecutive. Now he's looking at 10 years. All of his arrest
record, and I'm seeing absolutely no remorse. NARRATOR: Robertson
was transferred to a maximum security
state prison. You can't compare
a maximum security prison to a county jail. There's just no comparison. He's a 17-year-old. Now he's going to a state
prison, and he's a newbie. He's never been in
a state institution, and there are some really
bad guys in state prison. Most people that age
would really be afraid. What's interesting
about Mr. Robertson is that after he was arrested
and initially sentenced to 10 years in prison-- now 10 years is a long time,
but it's not a life sentence-- he continued to engage
in really egregious criminal activity in prison,
including stabbing and riots. Prisons obviously
are a dangerous place to work because they house
people who have engaged in violent crimes
and things like rape, and murder, and
assault, and batteries. For new inmates coming
in, it's a different world. We had a lot of
older inmates who preyed on the younger inmates. It's a difficult
situation to be in, especially if you're brand new
to the correctional facilities. NARRATOR: One of
the first inmates 17-year-old James Robertson
encountered was Efren Yero. His words here are
voiced by an actor. EFREN YERO: I was on the
exercise yard working out when a Mexican friend
of mine walked up to me with a little
blonde-haired, blue-eyed white kid and said, hey, Jam. Look at this little white boy. He just got off the bus. Well. When I saw him, I laughed,
walked up to him and said, you're cute, and I
pinched his face. Well, no sooner than
I touched his face, this scrawny little runt,
scarcely weighing 126 pounds, soaking wet, hauled
off and swung on me, hit me in the face. NARRATOR: Robertson had quickly
learned how to stay alive. And a lot of them
will look for protection from other inmates. There are gangs in
the prison system. Whether it's a Black
gang, Hispanic gang, the skinheads, the supremacists,
or stuff like that. So it's what direction
are you going to turn? Who is going to help
you and at what cost? There's always a price. EFREN YERO: Couldn't believe
this little runt swung on me. Before I knew it, he
ran for a curl bar that was lying on the
ground in the weight pile. Grabbed it, and he was cocking
it back to swing it at me. I moved in and took him down. I quickly began to apologize
saying, OK, OK, Shorty. I'm sorry. I'm going to let you get up now. I don't want any more
trouble from you. He looked at me, just
repeated, "don't try me, don't try me" over and over,
and then never did again. That was how I met
James Robertson, AKA, Chicken Head, way back in 1981. He was 17 years old then. Demographically, most
of the young white guys who thought they were
real tough on the outside, they come to a state prison and
you know, what am I doing here? I'm afraid. There's officers. There they do checks and stuff
like that, but things happen. You can't prevent everything. You always have inmates
who are willing to engage in violence and
illegal activities even after they
are incarcerated. He seemed to be on a
course to prove himself. NARRATOR: If James Robertson
had kept his head down, he could have walked free from
prison before he turned 30. But that just wasn't
going to happen. At the age of 17, James
Robertson, also known as Chicken Head, was
sent to state prison after being convicted
of burglary, aggravated assault, and attempted escape. He was sentenced to
10 years behind bars. So I don't know if he would
have gotten paroled or-- I really don't know. But he would have been
done, only 27 years old. NARRATOR: James
Robertson had initially got protection from an
older prisoner, Efren Yero. EFREN YERO: I told the
predators who were stalking him, wanted to rape him,
that he was no punk and wasn't going to be a punk,
and that I was enforcing that. Unfortunately, I ended
up getting into a fight and was transferred. After I left, Chicken
Head got into some [bleep] with somebody who tried him
and transferred to Cross City Correctional Institution. NARRATOR: This was the beginning
of the end for Robertson. He was transferred from
facility to facility. If he committed a crime in
there, if there was fighting, if there was an
assault, then they'll ship him out to another prison. And in his case, he went
back and forth a lot. He was bouncing around
like a rubber ball from one institution to another,
and nothing slowed him down. NARRATOR: Everywhere
Robertson went, trouble was not far behind. From 1985, these crimes
that were committed-- transmitting contraband
in a state facility, aggravated battery
with a deadly weapon, introducing a weapon into
a state facility, escape, Battery on a law enforcement
officer, constructive possession of a weapon. I've come across a multitude
of weapons, stabbing devices, slashing devices, batteries
and rocks inside of a sock, so they swing it around they
hit you on the head with it. When they really want
to kill somebody, and they're really desperate,
and they don't have access to making weapons,
what they will do is they will cut out a piece
of their cell, their locker. They'll get a needle, because a
needle is made out of titanium. And they will trace
over and over and over again until they punch it out. And when they punch out
that piece of metal, they sharpen it. And that's how they make
what's known as a bone crusher. And they call it
a "bone crusher" because it's deep enough
to penetrate the bones. NARRATOR: Every time
Robertson got into trouble, more years were added
to his sentence. He got caught up in some
situations at different prisons where they said he had done-- he had stabbed someone. He caught more time trying
to escape, more time. When they took him from
the jail to the courthouse, I believe he took the officer's
gun and was going to shoot him. He caught more time. He ended up life. Everything is
running consecutive. I have to quickly envision this
in my mind as how many years this kid is looking at,
and nothing stops him. It seems like criminal
activity became a norm for him. Most inmates go to prison,
and they just do their time and go home. But you have your
exceptions, and typically the common denominator
would be that they have antisocial personality
disorder and/or they're psychopaths, especially
if they are the world's most dangerous criminals. NARRATOR: As Robertson's
violence escalated, so did the punishments. He's a threat to officers. They can't control him. Look what he's doing. He's a threat to inmates
because he's fighting with them. And basically he's
a threat to himself because sooner or later,
he's going to get his. When inmates start to fight,
officers have to break it up. It's not always an easy
task, and you can get hurt. Then he's going to be
reviewed for close management because he is a danger. NARRATOR: In 1988, James
Robertson was sent to close management, also known as CM. Close management inmates,
they're on 23-hour lockdown with one hour of recreation
in a secured perimeter area also surrounded by razor wire. The inmates were fed
through a food slot. You might have inmates in there
that have committed aggravated battery on law enforcement
officers, assaults on law enforcement
officers, rape, all kinds. But they can't walk the
compound because of the danger they possess to other
inmates or officers. So basically it is confinement
for 23 hours in a 6 by 8 cell. The only saving grace,
I guess, for them is the fact that
they're not sharing that cell with another inmate. There is no television. There are typically no books. There's typically nothing
to occupy their time. And so that gives
inmates a lot of time to engage in maladaptive
behaviors and more criminal activity such as
using drugs, such as fighting, such as plotting, such
as trying to manipulate. So he was probably
fueled by anger, probably decided that he
was not going to ever do the right thing,
and just figured it was the perfect
environment for him to carry on with his
psychopathic and criminal tendencies. NARRATOR: Once released
from close management, Robertson was usually sent
back after breaking more rules. This continued for
the next 18 years. In 2006, he was
sent to Charlotte Correctional Institution. I worked at Charlotte
Correctional Institution until 2021. Charlotte Correctional was
a maximum security prison. Although Charlotte was one
of the cleanest prisons that I had been at, the
heat was unbearable, and the inmates got
showered three times a week. So you can imagine
walking into a quad, the stench would just hit you. It was like being in a sewer. At the time, he went to
Charlotte County in 2006. He was already at that
time 43, and he was looking at years more of custody. If you add up all these
years consecutively, I'd have to get
a calculator out. NARRATOR: As soon as he
arrived, Robertson was put into close management again. The noise was constantly
yelling, banging, hollering at each other, foul words. Most of the noise
from CM was at night. They were up all
night long, banging, yelling all night long. So during the day, it was noisy,
but at night it was even worse. [shouting] NARRATOR: The years
of close management had taken a toll
on James Robertson. We have a lot of mental
health in the prison system. If you aren't having problems
when you go in the system, you will have problems. If you've got a long,
drawn-out sentence, you will. NARRATOR: Robertson
also had a drug problem. When somebody is
addicted to substances, they are more likely to
engage in high risk behaviors as a direct result
of those substances, as well as in attempt to get
money for those substances. Being a forensic
mental health nurse is taking care of inmates who
are on psychotropic drugs, a nurse that takes
care of the mentally insane and mentally challenged
people in the prison system. James Robertson was
one of my patients. His anger was just unbelievable. He was a big man to begin with. He had his passive
aggressive behavior with us. He had been on every drug-- crack, LSD, cocaine,
marijuana, K2. He had been on everything in his
life in the system, everything. You name it, he was on it. NARRATOR: Having
been in the highest level of close management
for many years, James Robertson was
eventually moved to a lower level known as CM3. CM3, they have a cellmate. It's a gradual
increase of freedom, so to speak, from lockdown 23-7. Between all the offenses that
he committed in the prison, the fact that he was in
CM3 was kind of a miracle, because it's a gradual step
towards release to the compound with general population. But even if it's CM3,
you are still confined. This is a guy who
spent maybe 20 years in close management custody,
and you reach a breaking point. NARRATOR: It was too
much for Robertson. He made his ultimate wish
clear to anyone that asked. James always told
me, I hate it here. I'm going to be on the row. Because you people treat me
like a dog, like an animal. I hate closed management. I want to be on the
row, and it's quiet. I don't want to go
open population, and I'm sick of
closed management. So that was his ultimate
goal was to be on death row. I think Robertson
wanted to die. And maybe I'm wrong,
but when he said, I want to make a statement, I
want them to take me seriously, maybe in the back of his mind,
the death penalty, now they're going to take me seriously. I did it, and I died. But personally, if he
really wanted to die, he could have killed himself. I think he was a coward. NARRATOR: While in CM3, James
Robertson met his new cellmate, 52-year-old Frank Hart. Frank Hart was a sex
offender, and I believe he was close to being released. He really didn't
like Frank Hart. I don't think he liked the idea
that he was a sex offender. There's a code in prison. They hate pedophiles. And he told them, do not
put a pedophile in my cell. And unfortunately, Frank
Hart was a pedophile. And when they put
him in James's cell, he realized that
this was his way out. He was going to kill him. NARRATOR: On December 10, 2008,
James Robertson decided it was the moment to act on his plan. They're alone in his cell. He's been in close
management enough to know the routine of cell checks. The breakfast comes, and it
goes through the food slot. James Robertson ate his
breakfast and Hart's breakfast. An officer came in
to do the cell check, just to make sure
everything is OK. And of course,
things were not OK. I got a call from one of the
nurses that was passing meds, and James had given her a note
and said, don't bother to give Frank Hart his medicine. I killed him yesterday. NARRATOR: James Robertson had
strangled his cellmate Frank Hart to death the night before. James Robertson took socks,
and he tied them together. He did the deed. He strangled inmate Hart. NARRATOR: After being moved
to a less strict level of close management,
James Robertson had attacked and
killed his cellmate at the first opportunity. When we got Frank Hart up
to the medical department in our emergency room, I saw the
dental floss around his neck, and he had first choked
him with the dental floss, and then he finished
with a sock. And that was the day before. This was not a
quick and easy murder. This was something
that was torturous. Robertson later on stated
that he had murdered Mr. Hart because he was a sex
offender, which we all know sex offenders tend to
be low on the totem pole in correctional facilities. However, I'm not convinced that
that's really the reason Mr. Robertson murdered Mr. Hart. What I believe is that he
was a convenient target. But at the end of the
day, Mr. Robertson was going to murder
whoever was going to be the most convenient for
him to get sent to death row. NARRATOR: James Robertson was
now facing a murder conviction. I personally never
had an inmate tell me they wished they were on death
row like in the case of James Robertson. But I have had inmates tell me
that they wouldn't mind killing their cellmate to have single
cell status, which means being alone in their cell. I always knew that he
wanted to be on death row. I just never knew what
he was going to do or when it was going to happen. But it didn't surprise me with
him, especially with James, because he was adamant. It was funny because the next
day we were transferring Frank Hart to another
prison, but I don't believe that James knew that. Usually, the inmates
know everything. They know it before we know it. NARRATOR: Robertson
was charged with murder and sent to Charlotte County
Jail to await sentencing. My name is Barry
Amole, and I am a former corrections
deputy with the Charlotte County Sheriff's Department. Basically, care, custody,
and control of inmates. I would go in there. We were a direct
supervision facility, which means we were directly
in with the inmate population. NARRATOR: Barry Amole was
working at Charlotte County Jail in October 2009
when James Robertson was transferred there for
hearings on his murder charge. Robertson was back
in the highest level of close management, CM1. James Robertson was at
an elevated custody level with us, not somebody who
could be around other inmates or put in general population. He was known to be
a violent offender. He was CM1 close management,
a completely different set of rules than the
open population inmates in the regular pods. The inmates in his
particular area, most of them were looking at a
long prison sentence. They got their hour of
recreation several times a week. They got their showers,
but they were confined. NARRATOR: Barry Amole
knew James Robertson from the various periods he had
been incarcerated at the jail. James Robertson
was an individual among a bunch of characters,
and he was different. He was an institutionalized
person who'd been in prison for a very long time. He didn't want problems
that he didn't need. He didn't create
a lot of issues. He was quiet, though he
was very respectful to me. NARRATOR: James Robertson was
charged with second degree murder but fired various defense
lawyers because he wanted to be charged with
first degree murder and be sent to death row. He had about seven
attorneys, I think. I lost count. He wanted to be put to
death because he's had enough of this life behind the
door for all these years, and he's just tired of it. Most inmates do not
want to go to death row. They don't want to
be put to death. However, there is this
rumor around prisons that death row is very cushy. He wanted to go to
death row because he wanted to get away
from everybody, and death row is quieter. Death row is smaller. He doesn't have to deal
with all the things that are going on in close management. Ultimately, he just wanted
to be out of this life. James, it always seemed to me
that he had something in mind. I really do feel
like he had a very dangerous thought
process that was constantly going in his mind. He was always analyzing.
He was always looking. He was quiet. And you know, the quiet ones are
sometimes the most dangerous. So he wasn't the
biggest, strongest. He wasn't the one who was going
to kick the door off the hinges and come get you. But you make a mistake,
and he'll figure away, and he's going to accomplish
what he wants to accomplish. NARRATOR: Robertson was still
searching for an opportunity to escalate his sentence. So this is where I walked
into the facility, December 19, 2011, and began my shift. I worked at maximum segregation
unit, which was where James Robertson was housed. They are people that would
kill you as soon as you opened your mouth if you said
something wrong if they weren't behind the gate. It's not something that
you want to be exposed to. It's something that you
have to be trained for. And if you're not, you're
going to end up dead. James knocked on his door and
asked me to empty his garbage. When he asked me to do that,
typically we take the garbage through the food flap, but he
started spilling everywhere and making a mess, so I
just, without thinking, put my key in and
opened his door so he wouldn't make a mess. As soon as I put the key
in and opened the door, James rushed the door,
attempted to push it open. I tried to stop him from
coming out of the cell, but it was too late. He was already too far out. So at that point,
the fight was on. James had fashioned
two long pieces of metal that were pointy. He had sharpened them. He had used a t-shirt to
fashion handles on them and then braided wrist straps so
that they were attached to him and they were coming through his
hands, kind of like Wolverine. He stabbed me in the
arm the first time as he was trying to get out the door. It was on. At that point, I knew I wasn't
going to be able to force him back into the cell
by pushing the door, and I was going
to have to let him out and face him face to face. He asked me for my keys,
which I told him no, and clipped them into my belt.
I was giving him verbal commands like we're trained to do--
stop, what are you doing, what is this. I knew that he
wasn't going to stop, so as soon as he went
for another punch, I was able to punch
him a couple of times. I think it made
him a little dizzy. I think I hit him
good enough that it took the wind out of his
sails and he kind of slumped. And then right at
that time, the officer that I was working with,
she came to the door, and she opened the door. And so I kind of switched gears. It's like, well, I do not
want her in here involved. This guy has two knives
attached to his hand. So I ran to the door. I pushed her out the door. We secured the door back down. It wasn't until
after and I could see that I was bleeding
out of the two places where I had been stabbed. NARRATOR: Barry Amole
was taken to hospital and treated for his
injuries, which, luckily, were not life-threatening. I'd be lying if I
said I wasn't shocked. And that's part of the
complacency that is so dangerous in this business. But the training
that I had done here and that I was given with
the Sheriff's Department, it came into play,
and it saved my life. NARRATOR: An investigation
into the incident clarified Robertson's intentions. I made up my mind before
I even opened up the door. I made up my mind. If he tries to bark, I'm just
going to stab him a few times, just let him know I'm serious. I want the key. I mean, he didn't
give me no choice. I don't want to kill a guard. I just wanted to kill an inmate
so I can go on death row. NARRATOR: James Robertson
was charged with attempted second degree
murder and attempted robbery with a deadly weapon. He wanted to kill another
inmate that was housed several cells down from him. That inmate had been
very vocal towards James and was a known sexual predator,
and James didn't really care for those type of individuals. James's plan was to steal my
keys from me at all costs. If that meant killing
me, that's what it was. Then go down and get him in
his cell and stab him to death. So you're going to
continue to kill inmates until you get on death row. That's right. You know, I meant what I said. NARRATOR: James Robertson
had been on a mission to be sent to death row. Now he had killed
a fellow inmate. He was facing new charges. I was a member of the Florida
Department of Corrections for a period of 23 years. And during that time, I did
the pre-sentence investigation for inmate James Robertson. Robertson was at the Charlotte
County Sheriff's Office Jail awaiting sentencing on
a count of first degree murder of inmate Frank Hart. The pre-sentence
investigation is basically a report submitted to the court
to show the judge everything about this defendant. Without the pre-sentence
investigation, all the judge knows
about the defendant is what he has
read on the arrest report and the prior record. The judge doesn't know
anything socioeconomic. He doesn't know
how he was raised, his mental health, alcohol and
drug abuse, substance abuse. And these are important things. When I pulled his
records, I found his behavior from the
time he was 12 years old, he was ungovernable. He was intolerable. He did not seem to ever
stop engaging in violence. He did not seem to ever stop
engaging in rule-breaking. From the D he was a juvenile,
James Robertson was screaming for mental health counseling. Nothing seemed to affect him. Consecutive sentence
after consecutive sentence after consecutive--
he knew there was no way he's going
to see the light of day, and yet he continues. He had no childhood. He became an adult at 12,
and that's not an excuse, because I know a lot of people
that have never had a childhood and came from a broken home. That's not an excuse. That's a choice. So that was his choice. He chose that road. He chose those cards,
and he played them. I would say that Mr. Robertson
is institutionalized just by the fact that he's
been incarcerated essentially his
whole adult life, and he continued to re-offend. That being said,
I don't think Mr. Robertson would have been any
different out in the community. I think he would have
continued to reoffend, whether he was in prison or not. He seems to be a
complete psychopath by the very definition
of psychopathy, and so the environment
really was not going to change
whether or not Mr. Robertson was going to
engage in criminal behaviors. He was very angry and fed
up with the whole situation. He had about enough of this. NARRATOR: In December
2012, Mike Gottfried interviewed James Robertson
for this pre-sentence report. He was 49 years old when
I interviewed him and had spent 31 years in prison. I sit like I'm
sitting facing you. There's a table between us, and
he's shackled, legs and hands. Now, He's. A dangerous kind of guy. It might sound strange, but
he was very forthcoming. He didn't try to hide anything. He admitted to
everything he did. I know he murdered his
cellmate in CM3, Frank Hart. Sometimes you can
look at a person. See, I like eye contact because
there's signals, movement of the eyes, twitching. He didn't show any
signs of wrongdoing. NARRATOR: Robertson had killed
Frank Hart for just one reason. He wanted to get out
of close management and be put on death row. James had been in prison
for most of his adult life. I think that he was upset
that he didn't get the death penalty for his
previous crimes, and I think he had just had enough. I have a list of all the
institutions he'd been in, and it was close management
here, close management there, and that was the thing
that was killing him. Frank Hart was not the
nice guy of the world, but he had siblings. He had a family. In fact, when I spoke
with his family, they wanted retribution. Family is family. Now, you can't bring
the victim back, but someone has to pay a price. And here's a person who
wanted to pay that price. He's facing first
degree murder charges. The only thing is
whether he's going to go to prison for
the rest of his life without the
possibility of parole, or whether he's going to
get the death penalty. After I completed my
report, my conclusion was there is no
environment and there are no resources that will
ever assist this offender in rehabilitation. The recommendation was
for the death penalty. My conclusion was, based on
willful kill or homicide, that the death
penalty was justice. NARRATOR: On December
18, 2012, James Robertson was called to Charlotte
County court house to discover his fate. He came in. He was shackled, hands, legs. And there was a SWAT
team that brought him in. I saw him adjudicated guilty,
sentenced to the death penalty, and I didn't see a look of
disbelief, a look of fear. It's almost as if he
knew this was coming, and it finally arrived. NARRATOR: In February
2013, Robertson was transferred to death
row at Union Correctional Institution in Florida. Mr. Robertson was
the perfect storm to become somebody who
was going to ultimately end up on death row. James Robertson was always
very respectful to me, and I never had
any idea that James Robertson would attack me. I was very surprised. I was being complacent. I changed my whole life since
then because of this incident. NARRATOR: James Robertson
had finally got his wish and is now on death row. But it took the death
of a fellow prisoner to get him there. He never had a
break, but there's a lot of people out there
that never had a break. But I go back to your
choices that you made. He made that choice. No one else did. James will not be put to
death because there are so many others ahead
of him that he will die probably of natural causes. And he got what he
wanted, simple as that. He made the choice. He got it, and that's it. Mr. Robertson is probably one
of the most dangerous inmates in the United States prison
system for the simple fact that anyone can be a target. He's going to be a
danger to inmates. He's going to be
a danger to staff. He's going to be a danger
to correction officers. He's going to be in danger with
anyone he comes into contact with, because he's
so focused on serving his own needs that anybody
can be collateral damage. Death row is not a
punishment anymore. You've already been punished. You know that eventually you're
going to get an execution date. You're just waiting
for your date. That's your difference. It's over. [music playing]
