Florida Carries Out Two Executions in One Day, First Since 1964

Florida carried out two executions on July 28, 2026, putting James Aren Duckett to death at 1:19 p.m. and Dominick Anthony Occhicone to death at 6:13 p.m. The same-day executions were Florida’s first since 1964.

Both executions took place at Florida State Prison near Starke. Duckett, 68, was executed first after receiving a lethal injection. Occhicone, 80, was executed nearly five hours later; the injection began shortly after his scheduled 6 p.m. execution time.

The executions added to Florida’s unusually high use of capital punishment under Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has authority under Florida law to set execution dates through death warrants.

How the two executions unfolded

Duckett had been convicted of raping and drowning 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987 while working as a police officer in central Florida. He declined to make a final statement before the execution.

Occhicone had been convicted of fatally shooting his former girlfriend’s parents in June 1986. DeSantis signed his death warrant on June 26. The warrant designated the week beginning July 28 for the execution and stated that Florida State Prison had set the execution for 6 p.m. on July 28.

Associated Press reporting and Florida Department of Corrections records show that multiple executions on one day were more common before the modern era. The last previous same-day executions in Florida occurred in 1964.

Duckett’s DNA litigation preceded the execution

Duckett’s execution followed litigation over a request for additional DNA testing. The Florida Supreme Court had stayed his execution to allow testing of a sample from the victim’s underwear to be completed.

In a July 8 opinion, the court said the testing results did not exonerate Duckett, affirmed the denial of his postconviction motion and lifted the stay. DeSantis then issued a new warrant rescheduling Duckett’s execution for noon on July 28.

In a separate July 24 opinion, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Duckett’s request to test additional items and affirmed the denial of another postconviction motion. The court said the requested items contained no identifiable or testable genetic material and that Duckett had not shown bad faith by the state in the handling of the tested sample. The court also denied a stay.

Those rulings addressed the postconviction motions before the July 28 execution. They did not constitute a new factual finding about the underlying crime beyond the issues presented in those proceedings.

Occhicone’s July 21 appeal was also denied

The Florida Supreme Court issued a separate opinion on July 21 in Occhicone’s case. The court affirmed the denial of his second successive postconviction motion and denied his request for a stay.

Occhicone’s claims included arguments about lethal-injection procedures, his age, the pace of executions in Florida and the jury recommendation supporting his death sentence. The court rejected those claims as presented in the appeal and ordered its mandate to issue immediately.

The ruling left the July 28 warrant in place. The governor’s warrant letter identified Florida State Prison as the site and 6 p.m. as the scheduled execution time.

Florida’s execution pace

According to the Associated Press, Florida had carried out 12 executions in 2026 as of July 28, more than all other states combined. The two July 28 executions were included in that total.

AP also reported that DeSantis oversaw 19 executions in 2025, more in one year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

For Florida residents, the immediate development is the completion of the two executions and the court activity that preceded them. The official warrant and court records establish the July 28 execution dates, the governor’s role in issuing the warrants and the recent appellate rulings in both cases. This report does not identify any additional execution date without separate verification of a current warrant.

Sources

• Associated Press: Florida executes 2 men in a single day
• Florida Supreme Court: Duckett v. State, July 24, 2026
• Florida governor death-warrant letter for Dominick Occhicone

Look for updates to this story

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