South Carolina death row inmate seeks to volunteer to die after friends are executed

After his best friend and four other of his fellow death row inmates have been put to death in less than a year, a South Carolina inmate wants to become his own attorney which would likely mean his own execution in weeks or months. A federal judge has ordered a 45-day delay in James Robertson's request to have a different lawyer talk to him and make sure he really wants to fire his own attorneys and deal with the likely lethal consequences of his decision. Robertson, 51, has been on death row since 1999 after killing both his parents in their Rock Hill home.