Florida executes 2 men in a day, including an octogenarian

Florida Breaks Decade-Long Gap with Dual Executions

A Historic Day in the Sunshine State

Sandego.net – Florida marked a significant milestone in its criminal justice history on Tuesday by conducting two capital punishments within a single day. This achievement places the state at the forefront of execution activity after nearly ten years without such a concentrated effort. The day’s proceedings culminated with the death of Dominick Anthony Occhicone, an eighty-year-old man whose passing made him the second-oldest individual in contemporary American history to receive a lethal injection.

Just hours before Occhicone’s execution, the state put to death James Aren Duckett, a former law enforcement officer found guilty of murdering a young child. These back-to-back executions represent the closest such pairing since Arkansas completed two executions separated by merely three hours in 2017. Governor Ron DeSantis, exercising his statutory authority to determine execution schedules, chose to consolidate both deaths on the same date earlier this month.

Two Lives, Two Crimes, One Day

Duckett, aged sixty-eight, became the eleventh inmate to face the death penalty in Florida during 2026. His conviction stemmed from the 1987 rape and drowning of eleven-year-old Teresa McAbee while he served as a police officer in central Florida. When prison officials asked whether he wished to deliver a final statement, Duckett simply replied “no sir.” Minutes into his execution, he showed no reaction when the warden shook him and called out his name. He was officially pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m.

Occhicone’s execution followed later that evening at Florida State Prison near Starke. The octogenarian received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m., less than five hours after Duckett’s death. Convicted of killing his former girlfriend’s parents in 1986, Occhicone holds the distinction of being the oldest prisoner executed in Florida’s history since modern record-keeping began approximately one hundred years ago.

Broader National Context

While the death penalty has experienced a two-decade decline nationwide, Florida’s accelerated pace has contributed to a slight uptick in capital punishments across the country. Since the beginning of 2025, the state has conducted nearly half of all state-level executions in the United States. Florida has completed twelve executions in 2026 alone, surpassing the combined total of every other state. This represents a remarkable achievement for DeSantis, who leaves office in January after overseeing a record nineteen executions last year—the highest single-year total for any Florida governor since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

On a national scale, nineteen executions have occurred so far this year, including Tuesday’s pair. Since January 2025, Florida has executed thirty individuals while the remaining states have carried out thirty-five combined. Another execution is scheduled for August in the state.

Voices of Grief and Advocacy

Following Duckett’s execution, members of the McAbee family expressed decades of accumulated sorrow. Dorthy Tula, the victim’s mother, shared her perspective before becoming emotional: “I waited nearly 40 years to have him dead.” Tracy Mcfall-Buskirk, the girl’s cousin, added that “This man took advantage of his badge.”

Meanwhile, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has petitioned DeSantis to pause the executions, characterizing them as an “unprecedented escalation” of capital punishment in the state. Executive director Grace Hanna stated: “Florida continues to expand the use of capital punishment, despite mounting evidence that it is not what Floridians want.”

Legal Proceedings and Historical Precedent

DeSantis has offered limited explanation for scheduling the executions so closely together, though he has occasionally noted that some death row inmates committed crimes dating back to the 1980s. “Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly,” the governor remarked last year.

Legal challenges briefly interrupted Duckett’s execution in March when the Florida Supreme Court granted a stay for DNA testing of historical evidence. The results proved inconclusive, neither clearing Duckett nor definitively linking him to the crime. Judges ultimately allowed the original jury verdict to remain in place.

Occhicone’s death warrant had been signed last month, making him the sole Tuesday execution initially planned. However, after the Florida Supreme Court lifted Duckett’s stay on July 8, DeSantis issued a new death warrant and added Duckett to Occhicone’s scheduled date.

Florida Department of Corrections documentation reveals that multiple executions on a single day occurred more frequently in earlier eras, with the most recent instance happening in 1964. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the final appeals from both men on Tuesday, clearing the path for the historic day of executions.