Florida is scheduled to carry out two executions on Tuesday, the first time in nearly a decade that a state has planned lethal injections for two inmates on the same day. The executions of James Aren Duckett, 68, and Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, would bring the total number of executions under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to 31 in his final two years in office.
Duckett, a former police officer, was convicted of raping and drowning an 11-year-old girl in 1987. Occhicone was convicted of the 1986 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. Duckett is scheduled to be executed at noon, followed by Occhicone hours later.
DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has overseen an accelerated pace of executions. In 2025, Florida conducted 19 executions, the highest number in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. If Tuesday’s executions proceed, it will mark the 11th and 12th executions in Florida this year.
Florida’s Supreme Court denied appeals for both men last week. Duckett's attorneys argued he is innocent and that the state's handling of DNA evidence led to inconclusive results. Occhicone's attorneys contended that his age-related ailments could make his execution painful, constituting cruel and unusual punishment. Both men still had pending appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The decision to schedule two executions on the same day, six hours apart, has not been explained by DeSantis. Florida Department of Corrections records show that multiple executions on a single day were more common in the past, with the last occurring on May 12, 1964. Nationwide, while multiple states might execute inmates on the same date, it is less common for a single state to carry out two. Arkansas last executed two inmates on the same day in April 2017.
Occhicone, if executed, would become the second-oldest inmate put to death in modern U.S. history, following Walter Moody Jr., who was executed in Alabama at age 83 in 2018. Recently, two 74-year-old men briefly held the spot for Florida's oldest executed inmate. The aging death-row population has reignited discussions about the humanity of capital punishment for inmates who may die from natural causes.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has urged DeSantis to halt the executions, stating that this represents an "unprecedented escalation" of the death penalty's use in Florida and that it goes against public sentiment. The governor's office has largely refrained from commenting on executions, with DeSantis previously stating that his goal is to deliver justice for victims' families and that he would not proceed if he believed an inmate was innocent.