Florida executes 2 men within hours of each other

By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS

Florida took the rare step of executing two men within five hours of each other Tuesday, part of a dramatic rise in the carrying out of capital punishments during Gov. Ron DeSantis’ second term.

The men died by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in north-central Florida after the Supreme Court declined to halt their executions. Each had been convicted of murder in the 1980s.

James Duckett, 68, a former police officer who was convicted of sexually assaulting and strangling an 11-year-old girl, was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. Dominick Occhicone Jr., 80, was executed at 6:13 p.m. Occhicone, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents, became the second octogenarian put to death in the United States in the past 50 years.

The executions were the 11th and 12th in Florida this year and came as the Trump administration has encouraged states to more aggressively pursue the death penalty.

Florida has accounted for more than half of the executions in the United States this year, and at least one more is scheduled.

Duckett was convicted of murdering Teresa McAbee, 11, in 1987, after placing her in his police cruiser. He had maintained that he was innocent.

Teresa’s mother, Dorothy Tula, said in a statement released by prosecutors that she was grateful the execution had taken place.

“My family and I are glad this day is finally here — because it’s about justice for my daughter and remembering her, not the man who stole her future,” Tula said.

The last time Florida executed two men in one day was in 1964, using the electric chair.

States have executed multiple people on the same day 11 times since the death penalty was reinstated by a Supreme Court ruling in 1976, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. The most recent was in Arkansas, in 2017.

In 2014, Oklahoma had planned to execute two men in a day, but put off the second killing when the first man’s execution was botched. The error led him to writhe in pain and die of what prison officials said at the time was a heart attack.

Groups opposing the death penalty had argued that carrying out back-to-back executions would make it more likely that they could be mishandled.

“There was no explanation or reason for this risky proposition, and it was seemingly made with no regard for the solemn, necessary process of the final days of the condemned,” one group, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said in a statement.

Bill Gladson, the state attorney in Florida’s 5th Judicial District, where Duckett’s case was prosecuted, said in a statement that many people had “long awaited” the case’s conclusion.

“Our office reaffirms our commitment to seeking justice with integrity, supporting victims and their families, and ensuring that the rule of law is faithfully upheld in every case we prosecute,” he said.

State officials moved ahead with the executions Tuesday after the Supreme Court denied last-minute requests from both men. No reasoning was given for the denials, and no separate writings or public dissents were noted.

The number of annual executions in the United States has fallen since its peak in 1999, but nearly doubled from 2024 to 2025, driven in large part by Florida’s accelerated pace.