Florida state prison in Raiford in Union county. Photograph: Douglas R Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenFlorida state prison in Raiford in Union county. Photograph: Douglas R Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockFlorida executes man in first of two lethal injections planned in single dayGovernor Ron DeSantis has made the state’s death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term
A former police officer convicted of the on-duty rape and murder of a young girl was put to death on Tuesday, the first of two lethal injections planned for a single day in Florida, hours before an 80-year-old man was to become the second-oldest inmate executed in modern US history.
It has been nearly a decade since any state carried out two executions in one day, when Arkansas had back-to-back executions in 2017.
Read moreRon DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, has made the state’s death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term, saying too many families have waited too long to see justice.
Nationwide, the use of the death penalty had been declining for two decades, but that number has ticked up behind the increased pace in Florida. Since 2025 began, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions across the country.
James Aren Duckett, 68, was pronounced dead early on Tuesday afternoon following a three-drug injection at Florida state prison near Starke. The 11th inmate executed by the state this year, Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while he was working as a police officer in central Florida in 1987.
Duckett declined to make a final statement, responding “no sir” when asked. About four minutes after the execution began, the prison’s warden shook Duckett and shouted his name, but there was no response.
Afterward, the girl’s family members said they had suffered for decades.
“I waited nearly 40 years to have him dead,” Dorthy Tula, the victim’s mother, said before breaking down. “This man took advantage of his badge,” said Tracy Mcfall-Buskirk, the girl’s cousin.
Early on Tuesday evening, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was scheduled to become the oldest prisoner executed in Florida’s modern history. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986.
Until Tuesday, a total of 17 executions had been carried out in the US so far this year, with Florida carrying out more than all other states combined.
Both men saw last-ditch appeals to the US supreme court denied on Tuesday after the Florida supreme court declined to intervene last week.
Duckett’s attorneys had unsuccessfully claimed his innocence and argued against the state’s handling of DNA evidence.
Occhicone’s attorneys said several age-related ailments, including kidney and prostate problems, could make his execution especially painful, constituting cruel and unusual punishment.
DeSantis has not said why he scheduled two executions six hours apart. A Florida prison official said the department was confident in its readiness to carry out both. All Florida executions are by injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
DeSantis, who leaves office in January, oversaw a record 19 executions last year, more in a single year than any other Florida governor since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the US in 1976.
Florida now has executed 30 people since the beginning of 2025 while the rest of the US states combined have carried out 35 executions over the same time frame. Another execution in Florida is set for August.
