Judge orders mental review for SC death row inmate who wants to die
A federal judge has ordered a mental competency evaluation for a South Carolina death row inmate from Rock Hill who wants to drop his appeal and be executed, according to court documents and officials in the case.
James Robertson, 51, has been on death row since 1999 after he was convicted of killing his parents in their Rock Hill home in 1997. A stay of execution has been in place since 2011 when Robertson filed a federal lawsuit.
Earlier this year, The Herald was the first to report Robertson asked a judge to allow him to fire his lawyers, drop his appeal, and die by electric chair, lethal injection, or firing squad.
After a short hearing Tuesday in federal court in Charleston, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker ruled the court will appoint an independent evaluator to determine if Robertson is competent, according to a court order filed after the hearing.
Robert Kittle, spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, and John Warren III, one of Robertson’s court-appointed lawyers, confirmed that the court ordered an independent medical evaluation.
The attorney general’s office represents the state in Robertson’s case. Warren and two other court-appointed lawyers had sought the mental competency review.
Robertson attended the hearing by videoconference from Broad River prison in Columbia where he has been for 26 years. He did not testify Tuesday, Warren said.
At issue: Robertson’s decision to die
In the months since South Carolina resumed executions, six of Robertson’s peers on death row have been executed. His lawyers have expressed concerns about Robertson’s competency to drop his appeals after the recent spate of executions of people Robertson knew for decades.
One of the six men the state has executed is Marion Bowman Jr., Robertson’s best friend — on death row for more than 20 years.
State prosecutors have filed documents previously arguing Robertson’s competency had not been an issue from the time Robertson was convicted in 1999 for the killings.
Who is Jimmy Robertson?
In 1999, a York County jury sentenced Robertson to death for killing Earl and Terry Robertson with a hammer and baseball bat at their Rock Hill home. Robertson tried to make the crimes against his affluent parents look like a break-in, then fled to Pennsylvania before he was arrested.
Prosecutors said he wanted more than $2 million in his parents estate and insurance. Police found the weapons and evidence of the crimes along the route from Rock Hill to Philadelphia.
Earl Robertson was a Springs textile company executive at the time he was killed.
The trial became national news when it was broadcast live on Court TV. Robertson has been on death row ever since. His state court appeals failed, including the last court ruling earlier this year.
What happens next?
The court will appoint a medical expert to examine Robertson in the next 10 days, the court order shows.
After the evaluation and a report is issued, another court hearing will be held later this year, lawyers in the case said.
