Florida Prepares Dual Executions as DeSantis Accelerates Death Penalty at Historic Pace

Florida is poised to become the first state in nearly a decade to execute two inmates on a single day, with lethal injections scheduled for Tuesday for former police officer James Aren Duckett, 68, and octogenarian Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80. The dual executions mark a dramatic escalation under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has overseen an unprecedented surge in capital punishment since taking office. Occhicone would become only the second-oldest inmate executed in modern U.S. history.

Duckett is set to receive his lethal injection at noon at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1987 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl while serving as a police officer in central Florida. Occhicone faces execution later that day for the 1986 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. If both sentences are carried out, they would be Florida’s 11th and 12th executions this year.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected appeals from both men last week. Duckett’s legal team argued he is innocent and that inconclusive DNA test results should warrant a stay, while Occhicone’s attorneys contended that age-related health issues, including kidney and prostate ailments, would make his execution cruel and unusual punishment. Both cases maintain pending appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court.

DeSantis oversaw 19 executions in 2025, shattering the previous single-year record of eight set in 2014. The governor’s aggressive push over his final two years in office has resulted in 31 total executions compared to nine during his first six years. Another execution already scheduled for August 2026 suggests the next year could also set records.

Duckett’s death warrant was initially signed in February for a March 31 execution, but the Florida Supreme Court halted proceedings to allow DNA testing of evidence unavailable during his trial. The tests proved inconclusive, neither exonerating nor definitively linking him to the crime, yet judges upheld the original jury verdict. After the stay was lifted on July 8, DeSantis signed a new warrant and scheduled both executions for the same day.

The dual execution represents the first occurrence in Florida in more than 60 years, with the previous instance occurring on May 12, 1964. Nationally, single-state executions on the same day remain uncommon, with Arkansas last doing so in April 2017 and Texas executing two inmates on the same day in 2000. DeSantis has not publicly explained the reasoning behind the six-hour gap between the two injections or acknowledged any operational challenges the scheduling might create.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty condemned the planned executions as an unprecedented escalation. Executive director Grace Hanna stated that despite the cases’ differences, they demonstrate Florida’s continued expansion of capital punishment against public sentiment. DeSantis has previously argued that executing long-delayed sentences fulfills his obligation to victims’ families awaiting justice.

Occhicone’s execution would make him Florida’s oldest inmate put to death, following two 74-year-old men who recently held the distinction. His potential execution underscores national concerns about capital punishment administered to elderly inmates who may die naturally within years. Walter Moody Jr., executed in Alabama in 2018 at age 83, remains the oldest known inmate executed in modern U.S. history; he was condemned for a 1989 mail-bombing campaign that killed a federal judge.