SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – The State of Florida plans to execute two death row inmates on July 28, the first time two executions have taken place on the same day since 1964.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new death warrant Tuesday for James Aren Duckett, after the Florida Supreme Court lifted its stay of his previously scheduled execution.
If there is not another stay, Duckett is scheduled to die at noon and Dominick Anthony Occhicone at 6 p.m., both by lethal injection at Florida State Prison.
Occhicone, at 80, will be the oldest person put to death by the state in the modern execution era. He killed his former girlfriend’s parents four decades ago in Pasco County.
Duckett, 68, was convicted of the 1987 death of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee.
Duckett had been set to be executed March 31, but a stay was granted to allow for completion of DNA testing that could have exonerated him.
However, the analysis reportedly provided no new evidence to clear Duckett. Duckett has maintained his innocence.
The double execution is the first in Florida since the death penalty was resumed in 1972. But it’s hardly the first time it has happened.
According to data from the Florida Department of Corrections, the state has executed two or more people on the same date multiple times.
The state has executed four people in one day on four different occasions — twice in 1936, and once in 1941 and again in 1942.
— Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.
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