Florida to Carry Out First Double Execution in One Day Since 1964

Back-to-Back Executions at Florida State Prison

Florida is set to become the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, planning lethal injections Tuesday for an ex-police officer convicted of a young girl’s murder and an octogenarian who would be the second-oldest inmate put to death in modern U.S. history. The planned injections come 18 months after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis began stepping up executions at a rate unseen in modern times in Florida. Not since 2017 when Arkansas carried out two death sentences on the same day has a state planned back-to-back executions. James Aren Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at noon at Florida State Prison near Starke, followed about six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone, who also would become the oldest prisoner executed in Florida’s modern history. Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning an 11-year-old girl while working as a police officer in a small central Florida city in 1987.

Two Florida death row inmates are scheduled to be executed hours apart on Tuesday, which would mark the first time in more than six decades the state puts to death multiple people within a single day, as state officials continue to ramp up executions. Barring last-minute legal intervention, James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at noon on Tuesday at Florida state prison near Starke. Six hours later, Dominick Occhicone, 80, faces the same fate. Should both killings be completed, it would be the first time since 2017 that a death penalty state has conducted more than one execution on the same day. On 24 April 2017 Arkansas administered lethal doses to two prisoners, Jack Jones and Marcel Williams, just three hours apart and amid chaotic scenes that suggested the procedures were botched. In Florida itself, a review by the Associated Press showed that 1964 was the last time there were multiple judicial killing on a single day.

DeSantis hasn’t said why he scheduled two executions six hours apart, and Florida prison officials haven’t said whether the timing creates any logistical challenges for staff. Duckett has spent more than three decades on death row after being convicted of murdering 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987. Hours after Duckett’s death, the state plans to execute Dominick Occhicone, an 80-year-old man who would be the second octogenarian ever executed in the US death penalty’s modern era.

Governor Ron DeSantis and the Escalating Pace of Capital Punishment

I’m not shocked anymore by the number of death warrants that are being signed, but it struck me as a kind of rupture to the system that we would execute two people within six hours from one another, said Father Dustin Feddon, a Catholic priest who has been visiting prisoners on Florida’s death row for more than a decade. Feddon currently ministers to James Duckett, who is scheduled to be executed at noon on Tuesday.

Two executions in a day is incredibly rare, said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Occhicone would become Florida’s oldest inmate to be executed, just weeks after two 74-year-old men briefly held that spot, the second man just a week older than the first at his time of death. One of these men was Dennis Sochor.

Legal Arguments and Logistical Warnings From Advocates

The planned double execution unfolds during a period of accelerated capital punishment under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.