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Florida Breaks Decade-Long Gap with Dual Executions
The Sunshine State achieved a historic milestone on Tuesday by conducting two capital punishments within a single day, marking the first time since 2017 that such a rapid succession of executions occurred. The second-to-last instance of back-to-back executions happened in Arkansas, where officials put two men to death three hours apart during that year.
Leading up to this moment, Governor Ron DeSantis exercised his legal power to schedule both death sentences for the same date. His administration has transformed Florida’s execution facility into the most active in the country as his tenure draws to a close. The governor emphasized that countless families deserve timely closure after years of waiting for accountability.
An Octogenarian Joins the Ranks of the Executed
Dominick Anthony Occhicone, aged eighty, received his lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke at 6:13 p.m. His case places him as the second-oldest person executed via lethal injection in contemporary American history. Only one individual older than Occhicone has faced this fate: Walter Moody Jr., who was eighty-three when Alabama executed him in 2018 for mail bombs that killed a federal judge and injured a prominent civil rights attorney.
Convicted in 1986 for murdering his former girlfriend’s parents, Occhicone holds the distinction of being the oldest prisoner put to death in Florida since modern record-keeping began approximately one hundred years ago.
Former Officer Faces Justice for Child’s Death
Less than five hours before Occhicone’s execution, James Aren Duckett, a sixty-eight-year-old former law enforcement officer, received his fatal dose in the identical chamber. Duckett became the eleventh inmate executed by Florida in 2026. He was found guilty of raping and drowning eleven-year-old Teresa McAbee while serving as a police officer in central Florida during 1987.
When asked whether he wished to deliver a final statement, Duckett simply replied “no sir.” Minutes into the procedure, the prison warden shook him and called out his name, but received no response. Officials pronounced him dead at 1:19 p.m.
Before the execution, the victim’s relatives expressed their long-awaited relief. Dorthy Tula, Teresa’s mother, shared her feelings:
“I waited nearly 40 years to have him dead.”
Tracy Mcfall-Buskirk, the girl’s cousin, added:
“This man took advantage of his badge.”
Broader Context and Future Plans
Nationwide, nineteen executions have occurred so far in 2026, with Florida accounting for twelve of them—surpassing every other state combined. DeSantis, who departs office in January, previously oversaw a record-breaking nineteen executions last year, the highest single-year total for any Florida governor since capital punishment was reinstated nationally in 1976.
Since the start of 2025, Florida has executed thirty individuals, while all other states together have carried out thirty-five. Another Florida execution is anticipated for August.
DeSantis did not explain his reasoning for scheduling the two executions hours apart. He has seldom addressed the accelerated pace, though he previously noted that some death row inmates committed their crimes as far back as the 1980s.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly,”
the governor stated last year.
Legal challenges briefly delayed Duckett’s execution. In March, the Florida Supreme Court granted a stay to permit DNA testing of older evidence. The findings proved inconclusive, neither clearing Duckett nor conclusively linking him to the crime. Judges maintained the original jury verdict.
Initially, only Occhicone’s execution was planned for Tuesday. However, following the Florida Supreme Court’s removal of Duckett’s stay on July 8, DeSantis issued a new death warrant and merged both cases onto the same date.
Florida Department of Corrections documentation indicates that multiple executions on one day occurred more frequently historically, with the previous instance happening in 1964.
Meanwhile, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty petitioned DeSantis to pause both executions, characterizing the move as an “unprecedented escalation” of capital punishment usage in the state.
“Florida continues to expand the use of capital punishment, despite mounting evidence that it is not what Floridians want,”
declared the organization’s executive director, Grace Hanna.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the final appeals from both men on Tuesday, allowing the executions to proceed as scheduled.
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