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Two death row inmates are scheduled to be put to death on the same day in Florida — the first double execution in the Sunshine State in over six decades.
Governor Ron DeSantis rescheduled the execution of former police officer and convicted child murderer James Duckett for 12 p.m. on July 28, exactly six hours before Dominick Anthony Occhicone Jr. is also set to be put to death, USA Today reported.
The 68-year-old former cop was set to be executed in March for murdering an 11-year-old girl in 1987, but he received a rare and temporary reprieve from the Florida Supreme Court, pending the results of new DNA testing.
However, the DNA testing was inconclusive and Duckett’s reprieve expired on July 11. His execution was rescheduled by DeSantis on July 14.
At 80-years-old, Occhicone, who was convicted of murdering the parents of his ex-fiancée in 1986, will be the oldest death row inmate executed in Florida and the second oldest in the US.
If the rare double executions go ahead, it will be the first time since 1964 that the Sunshine State will have executed two death row inmates on the same day, according to a Death Penalty Information Center execution database.
DeSantis previously said he wants to give closure to the victim’s families who have sometimes waited over 40 years to see their loved ones’ killers be punished by death.
Since January 2025, 64 inmates have been executed in the US.
Florida has carried out 29 of them under DeSantis — making up 45% of all executions throughout the 27 states that have the death penalty, according to an analysis by USA Today.
Additionally, the Sunshine State has carried out 58% of executions in the US this year alone.
Under his tenure, DeSantis has signed more death warrants than any other governor in the state’s history and also signed legislation in 2023 to add the death penalty as possible punishment for convicted child sex abusers.
He also signed a law in 2025 that broadly expanded Florida’s execution methods to include anything “not deemed unconstitutional,” — but since no death penalty methods have ever been declared unconstitutional, experts warn that the law technically allows any imaginable method, from stoning to hanging.
Death penalty opponents are criticising DeSantis’ aggressive push, claiming that he is motivated by political ambition ahead of the 2028 presidential election and is “increasingly treating executions as routine instruments of political power,” the Floridians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty group said in a recent statement.
“Governor DeSantis’s secretive, self-serving pursuit of a record-setting number of executions ignores the trauma that carrying out two executions in a single day will inflict on prison staff,” Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center told the outlet.
“His rush to kill an elderly 80-year-old man and a man who may be innocent only proves the reckless disregard with which he is making these decisions.”
However, after meeting with the families of victims recently, DeSentis is more determined than ever to see old death penalty sentences be carried out, according to ProPublica.
“There’s a saying: Justice delayed is justice denied,” DeSantis said.
“We’re doing it to be able to bring justice to the victims’ families.”
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