James Duckett was executed at 1:19 p.m. EST for the 1987 slaying of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee. Photo courtesy Florida Department of Corrections/Website
July 28 (UPI) -- Florida carried out a rare double execution on Tuesday, putting James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone to death via lethal injection for separate murders.
Duckett, 68, was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. EST for the 1987 slaying of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee, the Florida Department of Corrections said in a statement. Occhicone, 80, was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend's parents, Raymond Artzner and Martha Artzner, also in 1987.
Occhicone was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m., the department said in a separate statement, making him the oldest person to be put to death in the state's history.
Death Penalty Information Center said he was also the second octogenarian to be executed in the U.S. death penalty's modern era.
