NewzGovernor Ron DeSantis has made the state’s death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final termA 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. (AP) — A former police officer convicted of the on-duty rape and murder of a young girl was put to death 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 U.S. James Aren Duckett, a former police officer convicted of the on-duty rape and murder of a young girl, was put to death Tuesday, the first of two lethal injections planned for a single day in Florida.
Since the beginning of 2025, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions nationwide. Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, putting to death an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. A former police officer convicted of the on-duty rape and murder of a young girl was put to death Tuesday, the first of two lethal injections planned for a single day in Florida.
history.Tuesday marked the first time since two convicted murderers were executed on a single day — in Arkansas in 2017 — that a state has planned virtually back-to-back executions. It also comes 18 months after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis began stepping up executions at a pace unseen in Florida since the U.S.
death penalty was reinstated in 1976, making his the busiest death chamber in the nation.Since the beginning of 2025, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions in the U.S.James Aren Duckett, 68, was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. 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 an 11-year-old girl while working as a police officer in a small central Florida city in 1987.Duckett declined to make a final statement, responding “no sir” when asked.
About 4 minutes after the execution began, the prison's warden shook Duckett and shouted his name, but there was no response.Later Tuesday, barring any last-minute development, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was scheduled to become the oldest prisoner executed in Florida’s modern history starting at 6 p.m. Occhicone was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986.Until Tuesday, a total of 17 executions had been carried out in the U.S. so far this year, with Florida leading the way with more executions than all other states combined.Both men had made last-ditch appeals to the U.S.
Supreme Court, and last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals by both men to intervene.Duckett’s attorneys had unsuccessfully claimed Duckett’s innocence and argued the state’s handling of the DNA evidence is the reason for the inconclusive results.Occhicone’s attorneys had argued that several age-related ailments, including kidney and prostate problems, could make his execution especially painful, constituting cruel and unusual punishment.DeSantis hasn’t said why he scheduled two executions six hours apart. A Florida prison official said Tuesday morning that the department was confident in …
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