By SCM Foreign Desk
STARKE, Fla. — In an unprecedented display of lethal force, the State of Florida put two condemned men to death in a single afternoon, executing a former police officer and an 80-year-old grandfather five hours apart at Florida State Prison.
The rare double execution was the first carried out in Florida in 62 years, and the first anywhere in the United States in nearly a decade. It highlights an aggressive push by Governor Ron DeSantis to accelerate capital punishment during his final years in office.
The first lethal injection was administered early Tuesday afternoon to James Aren Duckett, 68, a former police officer in Mascotte, Florida, who was convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee. Five hours later, officials returned to the execution chamber to put to death Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, who was convicted of killing his former fiancée’s parents inside their Pasco County home in 1986.
The Execution of James Duckett
Duckett’s execution was delayed by roughly an hour while prison officials awaited a final disposition from the United States Supreme Court, which ultimately denied his emergency petition for a stay.
Duckett was convicted of abducting Teresa McAbee on the night of May 11, 1987. The girl was last seen getting into Duckett’s patrol car at a local convenience store, and her body was discovered in a nearby lake the following morning. Investigators linked Duckett to the crime through tire tracks near the water, fingerprints on his patrol car, and hair analysis.
Throughout his nearly four decades on death row, Duckett maintained his innocence. His defense team repeatedly challenged the forensic evidence, pointing to discredited FBI hair testing methods and recanted testimony from a jailhouse informant. Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court briefly stayed his execution to examine physical evidence for DNA testing, but lower courts subsequently cleared the way for the death warrant.
Strapped to the gurney inside the death chamber, Duckett declined to deliver a final statement, responding simply, “No, sir,” when asked by the warden. A spiritual adviser sat beside him reading prayers from a book as the lethal drugs began flowing. He was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m.
Outside the prison, Teresa McAbee’s mother, Dorthy Tula, sobbed as she spoke to reporters after witnessing the execution. “I’ve waited nearly 40 years to have him dead,” she said.
The Execution of Dominick Occhicone
At 6:00 p.m., the chamber curtains opened once more for Dominick Occhicone. At 80 years old, Occhicone became the oldest inmate executed in Florida since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1979.
Occhicone was sentenced to death for the June 1986 double murder of Raymond and Martha Artzner. Prosecutors showed that Occhicone, enraged over a breakup with his former fiancée, broke into her parents’ home in Holiday, Florida, and shot them both to death.
At trial, Occhicone’s attorneys argued that severe alcohol abuse and psychological distress rendered him incapable of forming premeditated intent. The original jury split 7 to 5 in favor of recommending the death penalty—a non-unanimous margin that would render an inmate ineligible for execution under current federal constitutional standards and modern Florida law.
In his final moments, Occhicone expressed remorse to the victims’ relatives and thanked his spiritual advisers. “I know it don’t mean much, but I’m sorry,” Occhicone said before the drugs were administered. “I never meant to do what I did.” He was declared dead at 6:13 p.m.
Double executions are exceptionally rare in modern American jurisprudence due to the heavy administrative, logistical, and psychological burdens they place on correctional staff, as well as the heightened legal scrutiny involved. Florida had not executed two prisoners on the same calendar day since May 12, 1964, during the era of the electric chair.
Human rights advocates and capital defense attorneys criticized the state’s rapid pace. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty issued a statement highlighting Occhicone’s advanced age and health issues, arguing that executing an ailing octogenarian raised concerns under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
With Tuesday’s double execution, Florida has now carried out 12 executions this year. State officials defended the process, emphasizing that both cases had undergone decades of judicial review in both state and federal courts before the sentences were carried out.
