Florida executes two inmates in one day, including oldest death row inmate in modern era

Florida completed a rare double execution on Tuesday, putting Dominick Anthony Occhicone to death about five hours after James Aren Duckett was pronounced dead. After a flurry of emergency applications and petitions were turned down the past few days at the federal level, including the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Occhicone, 80, became the oldest inmate executed by the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. He was declared dead at 6:13 p.m. by the Department of Corrections. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty described the twin executions as an “unprecedented escalation” of the state’s use of the death penalty. “These are two profoundly different cases, but they point to the same troubling reality: Florida continues to expand the use of capital punishment, despite mounting evidence that it is not what Floridians want,” said Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Occhicone and Duckett were put to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, bringing the number of inmates executed this year to 12. A modern-era record 19 executions were carried out by Florida in 2025. The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers issued its own statement claiming that conducting two executions on the same day, a first in six decades, “should give every Floridian pause, especially considering that Florida leads the nation in death row exonerations.” Attorney General James Uthmeier has pointed to the legal appeals process to defend the state’s use of the death penalty. “We used to have a lot of litigation on execution nights, where sometimes we’d be up till midnight waiting for courts to decide,” Uthmeier said during an event in Brooksville in May. “We don’t see that as much anymore. I think people realize that the state is carrying out its obligation. We all take an oath to enforce the law.” Occhicone was executed for killing his former girlfriend’s parents four decades ago in Pasco County. According to court records, Occhicone went to the Pasco County home of Raymond and Martha Artzner where his former girlfriend was living with her child on June 10, 1986. Occhicone initially knocked on a sliding glass door, but his former girlfriend refused to talk and threatened to call the police. Occhicone appeared to leave, only to return a brief time later armed with a handgun. He cut the telephone lines to the home and was confronted outside by Raymond Artzner. Occhicone shot and killed Artzner and then broke into the home. While his former girlfriend was able to flee with her child, Occhicone fatally shot Martha Artzner four times. Charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Occhicone received a life sentence for Raymond Artzner's death and a death sentence for killing Martha Artzner. The jury voted 7-5 to recommend death in September 1987. Duckett, 68, was declared dead at 1:19 p.m. for the 1987 murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in Mascotte where he was a police officer. The execution was delayed about an hour awaiting the final action from the U.S. Supreme Court. Throughout the legal proceedings, Duckett maintained his innocence. Recent DNA testing that required a court-ordered stay in Duckett’s first death warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March failed to exonerate him. Duckett was a police officer for the Lake County city of Mascotte in May 1987 when Teresa McAbee was last seen getting into his patrol car outside a convenience store. Her body was found in a lake less than a mile away. She had been sexually battered, strangled, and drowned. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery on May 10, 1988 and sentenced to death on June 30, 1988. Duckett was also a suspect in the deaths of an unidentified young woman whose body was found in a water-filled ditch near Lakeland in 1986 and 14-year-old Jeanifer Shyan Weldon whose body was found in a rural part of Polk County in October 1987. William Frances Silvia, 61, is the next inmate scheduled to be executed. Silvia’s Aug. 18 execution is for the fatal shooting of his estranged wife at her mother’s Casselberry-area home in 2006. The last time two executions by the state occurred on the same day was May 12, 1964, when inmates charged with murder were put to death in Bay and Gadsden counties. The executions were the last conducted by the state until 1979, while waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to make a final decision on whether the death penalty was legal. In 1972, the court in Furman v. Georgia ruled that the way the death penalty was being applied was unconstitutional. But the court reversed itself four years later, determining the death penalty could be used when applied with clear rules for judges and juries. DOWNLOAD the free Gulf Coast News app for your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.