In October 2024, Robert Robertson was less than two hours away from dying when he won a last-minute stay.

That was a long day.

He recently shared with me what hardly anyone lives to describe the choreography of an execution,

the hours leading up to his own death.

I had the strip, and they gave me some other fresh clothing and stuff and stuff,

and then they gave me a pair of cloth slippers from my feet, you know,

and I had to put the belt of the chain around me and handcuffed and lock it in place.

Officers loaded Robert into a van bound for the 50-mile drive to Huntsville, the death chamber.

He was led to a tiny cell.

So I was walking back and forth, kind of pacing and stuff, you know.

I was talking to the Lord, praying to the Lord, you know.

Then they brought me some, supposed to be last meal and stuff, you know.

Had a choice between two of them.

One of them had like a hamburger salesburg steak on it.

And the other one had some rice mixture.

It looked kind of like Spanish style.

I picked that one and stuff, you know.

Robert was counting down the final minutes of his life, not knowing if the next footstep would be news of mercy or death.

I believe it was around six or somewhere around there and I heard, got to stay or something.

But then I heard it, they took it back, right?

Until shortly after 10 p.m., when the execution was called off,

the Texas Supreme Court had issued a last-minute stay.

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