After watching his best friend and four other fellow death row inmates executed in less than a year, South Carolina inmate James Robertson now wants to represent himself in court, a decision that will most likely hasten his own execution within months.
Judge Mary Gordon Baker has ordered a 45-day delay in Robertson’s request to fire his legal team, allowing time for an independent lawyer to evaluate whether he fully understands the consequences of his choice. The judge emphasised the need to ensure Robertson’s decision isn’t driven by impaired judgement or mental health issues.
Robertson, 51, has been on death row since 1999, convicted of killing his parents in their home. Prosecutors said he bludgeoned his father with a hammer and a baseball bat, stabbed his mother, and staged the crime scene to look like a robbery—all in an attempt to claim a share of their $2.2 million estate.
This is not the first time Robertson has attempted to waive his appeals. Shortly after his conviction, he sought to drop his case after a fellow inmate, whom he described as a card-playing companion, was executed without pursuing an appeal. That man, Michael Passaro, had been sentenced to death for setting a van on fire with his daughter inside.
On April 7, just four days before South Carolina carried out its fifth execution in seven months, Robertson submitted a handwritten, one-page letter to the court, stating that he and his lawyer had a “difference of opinion.”
“Since no ethical attorney will withdraw an appeal that will result in their client’s execution,” he wrote, “I’m ready to represent myself.”
His current attorney, Emily Paavola, responded by raising serious concerns about Robertson’s mental state. She said he was not taking medication for depression, suffered from chronic back pain and a skin condition that exacerbated his mental health struggles, and was deeply affected by the recent string of executions, particularly the loss of his best friend on death row, Marion Bowman Jr., who was executed on January 31.
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Paavola asked for a four-month delay to allow for a full psychiatric evaluation. Prosecutors countered by suggesting the judge speak directly with Robertson to determine his competence. Judge Baker chose a middle path: appointing another attorney to confer with Robertson and report back by early July.
Back in 2002, Robertson had also tried to abandon his appeals. At the time, he told the court he preferred a death sentence over life without parole and felt betrayed by every lawyer who had represented him since his arrest.
During a hearing, he reflected on his friend Passaro’s execution, saying, “It hasn’t changed my view. What it did was it made me understand, enhanced reality a bit, to see my best friend go from one day playing cards with me to the next day not being here anymore,” Robertson said. “He basically has taken a similar route that I’m choosing to take now, and we spoke often about his decision.”
Prisoners like Robertson are known in capital punishment circles as “volunteers”—inmates who waive their appeals and effectively request execution. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), about 10 per cent of US executions fall into this category. A 2014 paper by Northwestern Law noted a disturbing symmetry: 143 death row inmates have been executed as volunteers. Exactly the same number as those who have been exonerated.
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Not everyone agrees on how to handle inmates like Robertson. Some death penalty attorneys believe the legal system must protect prisoners from their own despair. Michael Laurence, former director of the ACLU’s death penalty project in Northern California, told the New York Times in a 1993 article, “You have to be extremely wary of uncritically accepting statements as to what they want. If they had any judgment, they wouldn’t be on death row.”
Others believe that overzealous lawyers sometimes override the actual wishes of their clients. In the same article, Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg criticised lawyers whose “simple goal [is] to reduce executions any way possible” even if it undermines a client’s autonomy.
Research has also revealed that nearly all volunteers suffer from mental illness. Leah Roemer, an associate with the DPIC, cited the case of Derrick Dearman, who had struggled with suicidal ideation since childhood and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, PTSD, and other mental health conditions. He was executed by Alabama on October 17 after waiving his appeals, despite never receiving a competency hearing. Roemer emphasised that the US Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional to execute someone who cannot rationally comprehend their punishment, calling the practice one that “simply offends humanity.”
Cornell University law professor John Blume’s 2005 study, “Killing the Willing,” found that 88 per cent of volunteers had a history of mental illness or substance abuse. Volunteers were overwhelmingly white males (85 per cent) even though they make up just 45 per cent of the death row population. African-American men, who represent 43 per cent of death row, made up only 3 per cent of volunteers.
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Still, mental illness isn’t the only factor. Some inmates choose execution because they see no point in fighting a system they believe is stacked against them. As a Northwestern University study put it, many believe appeals are futile. One inmate told researchers, “If [my appeals] would lead to my release, I’d be interested… But if it’s just one of these, give me a new sentencing hearing and I have to stay in jail for the next however many years, forget it.”
While the overall number of executions has declined, so too has the number of volunteers. Between 2000 and 2009, 65 of 590 US executions involved inmates who waived their appeals—including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. From 2020 to the present, only seven of 111 executions have involved volunteers, according to the DPIC.
Tommy Pope, the prosecutor who sent Robertson to death row and now serves as Speaker Pro Tem of the South Carolina House, said he understands why some inmates opt out of fighting their sentences.
“If you told me—be incarcerated on death row the rest of your life or just go ahead and go to the Lord, you know, I might choose the latter too,” Pope said.
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But he also described Robertson as a man of “above-average intelligence” who has consistently tried to manipulate the legal system.
“As usual with Jimmy, it will remain to be seen how it plays out until the very end,” he said.
