Florida is set to execute two death row inmates by lethal injection this Tuesday at the Florida State Prison, near Starke, in what will be the first double execution in the same state in nearly a decade.
The condemned are James Aren Duckett, 68 years old, whose execution is scheduled for noon; and Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80 years old, whose death is set for six in the evening.
If both are carried out, they will be the 11th and 12th executions in the state so far in 2026, and Florida will become the first state in the country to execute two people on the same day since Arkansas did so in April 2017.
Within the state of Florida itself, nothing similar had occurred since May 12, 1964, more than 62 years ago.
James Aren Duckett: The former policeman convicted of the murder of a girl
Duckett was a Mascotte Police officer when on the night of May 11, 1987, he found Teresa Mae McAbee, 11 years old, exiting a convenience store.
Witnesses saw him drive away with the minor in his patrol car.
The next day, a fisherman discovered the body of the girl on the shores of Lake Knight: she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
He was convicted in May 1988 for first-degree murder and sexual assault.
Its execution was suspended in March 2026 to allow for new DNA testing on evidence that the technology of the time could not analyze.
The results were inconclusive: he was neither exonerated nor definitively implicated.
The Florida Supreme Court lifted the suspension on July 8, 2026.
Her lawyer, Mary Elizabeth Wells, has firmly rejected the execution.
"Mr. Duckett has consistently maintained his innocence. It is the duty of the State to ensure that justice is served, and not to rush to execution in a case with such serious doubts about guilt," Wells stated.
Duckett is also suspected of two other unsolved crimes: that of 22-year-old Ronette Lynn Peterson, who was found strangled in May 1986; and that of 14-year-old Jeanifer Shyan Weldon, who went missing in September 1987.
He was never formally charged in either of the two cases.
Dominick Occhicone: An 80-Year-Old Man Facing Lethal Injection
Occhicone will become, if the sentence is carried out, the oldest prisoner executed in modern Florida history and the second oldest in modern United States history, surpassed only by Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who was executed in Alabama in 2018 at the age of 83.
On June 10, 1986, in Holiday, Florida, Occhicone arrived armed at the home of Raymond Artzner (66 years old) and Martha Artzner (62 years old), the parents of his ex-girlfriend, whom he blamed for the breakup of their relationship.
He cut the phone lines, shot Raymond in the face, and riddled Martha with four bullets.
The woman died at the scene, while the man died in the hospital after identifying the assailant to the police.
In his 1987 trial, Occhicone admitted to the facts but claimed that they were not premeditated and that he suffered from severe alcoholism. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Martha and to life imprisonment for the murder of Raymond.
His lawyers argue that executing a man with kidney, prostate, and heart diseases—who needed assistance even to take a shower—constitutes cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.
A judge rejected the suspension of the execution.
DeSantis's record and the pending legal resources
The Florida Supreme Court rejected the appeals of both convicts last week, although the two have pending petitions before the United States Supreme Court.
The executions are part of the intensive death penalty enforcement policy promoted by Ron DeSantis, whose term ends in January 2027.
In 2025, DeSantis oversaw a historic record of 19 executions in Florida, the highest number recorded by a state governor since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, accounting for approximately 40% of all executions in the country that year.
If the two executions scheduled for this Tuesday go ahead, the governor will have authorized 31 executions in his last two years in office, compared to nine in his first six years in the role.
DeSantis himself has defended the accelerated pace: "Some of these crimes were committed in the 1980s. Delayed justice is justice denied," he stated in 2025.
“If I truly believed that someone was innocent, I would not sign the execution order,” he added.
Another execution is already scheduled for August 2026, which could make this year a new record for the state.
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