STARKE, Fla. — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, putting to death an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of the killing of a young girl. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida’s death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term, saying too many families have waited too long to see justice. The lethal injections just hours apart were the first nearly back-to-back executions since Arkansas put two men to death three hours apart in 2017. DeSantis, who has the authority under Florida law to set execution dates, decided earlier this month to carry out both executions on the same day. Nationwide, the use of the death penalty had been declining for two decades, but that number has ticked up behind the increased pace in Florida. Since 2025 began, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions across the country. Man, 80, apologizes for killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents Dominick Anthony Occhicone, the octogenarian, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke following a three-drug injection. His execution came nearly five hours after the ex-police officer, James Aren Duckett, 68, received a lethal dose in the same death chamber. The chamber’s curtain went up promptly at Occhicone’s 6 p.m. scheduled execution hour. He lay strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm, a spiritual adviser near his feet. Asked if he wishes to make a statement, Occhicone said he thanked all of his Christian brothers for visiting him over the years. He also apologized to his own family for what he put them through, as well as the family of the victims. “Sorry for all the hurt I caused,” he said. “I know it don’t mean much, but I’m sorry,” Occhicone said. “I never meant to do what I did.” The injection began at 6:02 p.m. followed by several minutes of deep breathing. When the breathing slowed, a warden shook him and yelled his name without response. Occhicone, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986, is the oldest prisoner executed in Florida’s history since modern record-keeping began a century ago. Nationwide, an older inmate, 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr., received a lethal injection in Alabama in 2018 for a wave of mail bombs in 1989 that killed a federal judge and wounded a Black civil rights attorney. Afterward, the children of victims Raymond and Martha Artzner released a statement saying their family had come to “the end of a long and painful journey.” “The years since June 10, 1986, have been filled with sleepless nights, empty chairs at family gatherings, and those one-on-one conversations that were lost,” it read in part. “Today does not erase that pain and it does not undo the harm, but it does close a door and end a chapter in our lives that has just lingered on far too long.” A former police officer was executed in the afternoon Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Duckett became the 11th inmate executed by the state of Florida this year. He was convicted of raping and drowning 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while he was working as a police officer in central Florida in 1987. Duckett declined to make a final statement, responding “no sir” when asked and showing no response when the prison warden shook him and shouted his name minutes into his execution. He was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. Afterward, the girl’s family members said they had suffered for decades. “I waited nearly 40 years to have him dead,” Dorthy Tula, the victim’s mother, said before breaking down. “This man took advantage of his badge,” said Tracy Mcfall-Buskirk, the girl’s cousin. Record execution numbers for governor’s final two years Nationwide, a total of 19 executions have been carried out so far this year, including Tuesday’s. Florida has now conducted 12 executions to date in 2026 — more than all other states combined. DeSantis, who leaves office in January, oversaw a record 19 executions last year, more in a single year than any other Florida governor since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the U.S. in 1976. Another execution in Florida is set for August. Many on Florida’s death row have been there for decades DeSantis hasn’t said why he scheduled two executions hours apart. And he has rarely commented on the pace of executions, previously noting some on death row had committed 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 said last year. Florida Department of Corrections records show multiple executions on a single day were more common in the past, the last being in 1964. The U.S. Supreme Court denied last appeals from both men Tuesday. All Florida executions are by injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections. David Fischer, The Associated Press Associated Press reporter John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
