Florida Executes 2 Men in 5 Hours

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 US history. Five hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of killing a young girl. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida'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, the AP reports. The lethal injections just hours apart were the first nearly back-to-back executions since Arkansas put two men to death three hours apart in 2017.

DeSantis, who has the authority under Florida law to set execution dates, decided earlier this month to carry out both executions on the same day.

• Dominick Anthony Occhicone, the octogenarian, was pronounced dead at 6:13pm at Florida State Prison near Starke following a three-drug injection. His execution came nearly five hours after the ex-police officer, James Aren Duckett, 68, received a lethal dose in the same death chamber. Asked if he wished to make a statement, Occhicone said he thanked all of his Christian brothers for visiting him over the years. He also apologized to his own family for what he put them through, as well as the family of the victims. "I know it don't mean much, but I'm sorry," Occhicone said. "I never meant to do what I did."
• Occhicone was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents in 1986. Prosecutors said he cut phone lines to the home and fatally shot Raymond and Martha Artzner after his ex-girlfriend refused to talk to him, CNN reports.
• Occichone is the oldest prisoner executed in Florida's history since modern record-keeping began a century ago. Nationwide, an older inmate, 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr., received a lethal injection in Alabama in 2018 for a wave of mail bombs in 1989 that killed a federal judge and wounded a Black civil rights attorney.
• The oldest inmate previously executed in Florida was a 74-year-old man executed on July 14. Dennis Sochor was a week older than Dusty Ray Spencer, a 74-year-old man the state executed last month.

• Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Duckett became the 11th inmate executed by the state of Florida this year. He 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 and showing no response when the prison warden shook him and shouted his name minutes into his execution. He was pronounced dead at 1:19pm.
• 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.