Florida executed two men this Tuesday at the Starke state prison, about 80 kilometers southwest of Jacksonville, in the northern part of the peninsula, marking the first time the State has carried out two executions in one day since 1964. One of the condemned, Dominick Occhicone, 80 years old, is the oldest person executed in Florida since it reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
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The executions of James Duckett, 68, and Occhicone, just six hours apart, are the 11th and 12th in Florida so far this year. Another execution is scheduled for August 18. The State is at the national forefront in applying the death penalty, three times higher than Texas, which follows with four executions. Before Occhicone, the oldest person executed in Florida had been Dennis Sochor, 74, two weeks ago.
Last year, Florida executed 19 people, nearly half of the 47 carried out nationwide, an acceleration that contrasted with just three signed by Governor Ron DeSantis between 2023 and 2024, amid a national climate of death penalty reactivation under the Donald Trump Administration. While former President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of almost all those convicted of federal crimes, Trump has encouraged state prosecutors to seek new death sentences.
In line with this, the Florida Legislature, controlled by Republicans, passed laws in 2023 regarding the death penalty, one of which allows a jury to recommend the death penalty without unanimity, with just eight of the 12 votes, the lowest threshold in the country. Only one other State, Alabama, allows a non-unanimous death penalty recommendation, although it requires at least ten votes.
Duckett was executed after noon for the 1987 murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee. The execution had been suspended in March by the Florida Supreme Court to review DNA evidence that he claimed would prove his innocence, a motion that did not succeed. DeSantis rescheduled his execution for July 14. The victim’s mother, Dorthy Tula, told the press she had waited 40 years for this moment.
Occhicone was executed later on Tuesday for the murders of his ex-partner’s parents in 1986. At his trial, the jury recommended the death penalty by seven votes to five, a margin that would not be sufficient under current laws. Occhicone filed legal appeals regarding his age and against the lethal injection method to halt the process.
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Both cases had divided juries on death recommendations.
“In the case of James Duckett, we are killing a man against whom all the evidence is, at best, circumstantial and whose jury was divided eight to four in recommending the death penalty. Six hours later, we will kill an 80-year-old man whose jury was divided seven to five. If Mr. Occhicone were tried today, he could not be executed. Even people who support the death penalty feel uncomfortable with this wave of executions when asked to examine the details of each case,” said Abraham Bonowitz, of the organization Death Penalty Action, one of the groups that mobilized with protest vigils and last-minute petitions before the state Legislature in Tallahassee. The organizations denounced what they called an “uncontrolled and unnecessary pace of executions in the State.”
“Most Floridians have no idea that these executions are happening nor to what extent Governor DeSantis is getting out of control with this,” Bonowitz stated.
Robin Maher, from the Death Penalty Information Center, questioned the secrecy of the process. According to what he told The Guardian, DeSantis has been setting execution dates almost every two weeks, “at an extraordinary pace,” without explanations or “any kind of institutional oversight.”
Activists warn that carrying out multiple executions in one day increases the risk of errors and suffering. They also question the use of a paralytic in the lethal injection that, they claim, could hide signs of pain and whether the condemned is dying in agony.
Opponents of the death penalty also point to the risk of executing wrongfully convicted people. Last month, a man from Louisiana, Jimmie “Chris” Duncan, was released after spending nearly 30 years on death row, accused of the death of his ex-partner’s daughter in 1993. His conviction was overturned after new evidence emerged and a prison informant recanted his testimony.