The state of Florida is gearing up for an extraordinary day on Tuesday, July 28, as two condemned men are set to face lethal injection just hours apart inside the same prison. For families and onlookers, it will be a rare and emotional back-to-back chapter in the state’s death penalty history.
First up at noon is James A. Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer now 68 years old. He was convicted for the 1987 rape, strangulation, and drowning of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee.
According to court records, Duckett stopped the girl and a 16-year-old companion for being out past curfew, then ordered her into his patrol vehicle. Her body was found the next morning in a lake. He was originally set to be executed in March, but a last-minute request for DNA testing on the victim’s underwear put things on hold.
The tests came back inconclusive, and the Florida Supreme Court lifted the stay, clearing the way for Tuesday’s execution.
Then, at 6 p. m. , the prison will turn its attention to Dominick A.
Occhicone Jr. , 80 years old. He is scheduled to become the oldest person executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the News Service of Florida.
Occhicone was convicted in 1987 for the first-degree murders of Raymond and Martha Artzner, his ex-girlfriend’s parents. His legal team argued that severe heart and kidney disease made him unable to care for himself and that executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied both his post-conviction relief and a request for a stay.
Both men remain on death row alongside 239 others, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. As the clock ticks toward Tuesday, the question lingers—will either of them get a last-minute reprieve, or will Florida see two executions in one day for the first time in years?
