The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, recently signed a new order to execute James Aren Duckett by lethal injection on July 28th, a date on which the execution of another condemned inmate was already scheduled. It would be the first time since 1964 that Florida executes two inmates on the same day.
James Aren Duckett, 68 years old, a former police officer convicted of sexually assaulting and drowning an 11-year-old girl in 1987, is scheduled to be executed at noon at Florida State Prison, near Starke.
Six hours later, at 6 PM, the execution of Dominick Anthony Occhicone, aged 80, is scheduled; he was convicted of fatally shooting the parents of his ex-partner in 1986.
This is the first time that Florida plans to carry out two executions in a single day since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
The records of the state Department of Corrections indicate that the last double execution took place on May 12, 1964, when Emmett C. Blake and Sie Dawson were executed for murder.
Duckett's case has reached this point after a postponement. DeSantis had already signed an order in February to carry out the execution on March 31, but the Florida Supreme Court granted a stay of execution just days beforehand to allow new DNA testing on evidence that could not be analyzed with the technology available during the original trial.
The results were inconclusive: they neither exonerated the convicted individual nor allowed for a definitive connection to be made with the crime.
The court lifted the suspension on July 8, which paved the way for the new execution order.
Duckett's attorney, Mary Elizabeth Wells, described the rescheduling as shameful and stated that the state's handling of DNA evidence explains the inconclusive results.
"Mr. Duckett has consistently maintained his innocence. The duty of the State is to ensure that justice is served, and not to hastily push for a death sentence in a case with such serious doubts about guilt," he stated in a communiqué.
According to court documents, Duckett was the only service agent in Mascotte, about 40 miles west of Orlando, on the night of May 11, 1987.
Witnesses reported seeing Teresa McAbee get into the patrol car of Duckett in front of a convenience store. Her body was found the next morning in a nearby lake.
During the original investigation, the analyses indicated that the DNA from fluids and hair collected from the girl's body likely matched that of Duckett. Fingerprints attributed to the former police officer and the minor were also found in his patrol car.
Occhicone, for his part, would become the oldest inmate executed in Florida and the second oldest in modern U.S. history, surpassed only by Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who was executed in Alabama in 2018 at the age of 83.
His lawyers argue that executing a man with kidney, prostate, and heart diseases, who also needs assistance to shower, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.
A judge rejected the suspension of the execution, considering that age is not an exception to the death penalty.
If both executions are carried out, Duckett and Occhicone will be the 11th and 12th inmates executed in Florida in 2026, a year in which the state has already recorded ten executions as of July 14.
The current pace is framed within an unprecedented policy: DeSantis set a historic record of 19 executions in 2025, greatly surpassing the previous high of eight in 2014.
The governor has justified his stance with a statement made in November 2025: "Some of these crimes were committed in the 80s. Delayed justice is justice denied. If I truly believed someone was innocent, I would not give the order."
The appeals of both convicted individuals must go through the Supreme Court of the United States before the executions take place.
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