Florida rushes to execute two men, including an 80-year-old, in a chilling display of state violence
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Florida is set to carry out two executions in one day, including that of an 80-year-old, marking a grim milestone in the state's relentless pursuit of capital punishment. Human rights advocates condemn this as a barbaric escalation under Governor DeSantis, who has overseen a record number of executions despite mounting public opposition.
On Tuesday, Florida officials plan to execute two men in a shocking demonstration of the state’s commitment to the death penalty, with former police officer James Aren Duckett, 68, scheduled for lethal injection at noon near Starke, and 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone to follow six hours later. Duckett was convicted in the 1987 rape and drowning of an 11-year-old girl, while Occhicone was sentenced for the 1986 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. Both men, denied justice by the Florida Supreme Court last week, still have pending petitions before the U.S. Supreme Court, highlighting the rushed and inhumane nature of these executions.
These executions will be the 11th and 12th in Florida this year, and the first double execution since 1964—a disturbing throwback to a darker era. Governor Ron DeSantis, who is leaving office in January, has presided over 19 executions in 2025 alone, the highest annual total since the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1976. If Tuesday’s executions proceed, his final two years will have seen a staggering 31 people put to death, cementing his legacy as a champion of state violence.
Advocacy groups have condemned the state’s actions. Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, called the scheduled executions “an unprecedented escalation of Florida’s use of the death penalty,” pointing out that the state is expanding capital punishment even as public opposition grows. The governor’s office has remained silent, but DeSantis has previously justified his actions by claiming to provide closure for victims’ families, ignoring the mounting evidence of the death penalty’s failures and injustices.
Occhicone will become the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history and the second-oldest in the U.S. since 1976, after Alabama executed an 83-year-old in 2018. The Florida Department of Corrections continues to use a cocktail of drugs—sedative, paralytic, and heart-stopping agent—despite widespread concerns about the cruelty and reliability of lethal injection. This double execution is a stark reminder of the urgent need to abolish the death penalty and end state-sanctioned killing.