Trending
STARKE, Fla. -- Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last 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 killing 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 several hours apart were the first nearly back-to-back executions since Arkansas put two men to death three hours apart in 2017.
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
Dominick Anthony Occhicone, the octogenarian, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke after a three-drug injection. His execution came nearly five hours after the former police officer, James Aren Duckett, 68, received a lethal dose in the same death chamber.
Asked if he had any final words, Occhicone said he thanked all of his Christian brothers for visiting him over the years. He also apologized to the family of the victims and to his own family for what he had put them through.
"Sorry for all the hurt I caused," he said.
"I know it don't mean much, but I'm sorry," Occhicone added. "I never meant to do what I did."
Occhicone, who was convicted of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend's parents in June 1986, is the oldest known prisoner executed in Florida since it began modern record-keeping a century ago.
Former police officer executed
Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Duckett became the 11th Florida inmate executed 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 and showed no response several minutes into the execution when the prison warden shouted his name. He was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m.