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Florida set to execute 2 men in a day, including 80-year-old
AP News • • nation
Key Points:
- Florida plans to carry out two lethal injections on the same day for the first time in nearly a decade, executing ex-police officer James Aren Duckett and 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone.
- Governor Ron DeSantis has accelerated executions, with 19 carried out in 2025 alone, and Tuesday's planned executions would bring his total to 31 in his final two years.
- Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning an 11-year-old girl in 1987, while Occhicone was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986; both men had appeals denied by the Florida Supreme Court.
- Occhicone would become Florida's oldest executed inmate in modern history and the second-oldest in the U.S., raising ethical concerns about executing elderly prisoners with health issues.
- Advocacy groups have called for halting the executions, citing increased use of capital punishment in Florida despite public opposition and questions about justice and humanity.
