FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The state of Florida is set to execute two death row inmates on the same day for the first time in more than 60 years, now that a stay has been lifted for a former police officer who had been scheduled to die earlier this year for killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987.James Aren Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die at noon on July 28 at Florida State Prison near Starke, according to a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning the girl while working as a police officer in a small central Florida city. The execution for Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, was previously scheduled for 6 p.m. that same day. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986. This is the first time Florida plans to execute two inmates on the same day since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty nationwide in 1976 after temporarily halting executions in 1972. Duckett and Occhicone would become the 11th and 12th inmates to be executed in Florida this year if their deaths go as scheduled. Appeals in both cases will eventually go to the U.S. Supreme Court before any executions are performed.
DeSantis oversaw a record 19 executions in 2025, more in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous high was eight executions set in 2014.
