A former police officer, James Aren Duckett, aged 68, has been executed nearly four decades after committing the rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in central Florida in 1987. Duckett received a lethal injection at the Florida state prison near Starke and was the 11th inmate to be executed by the state in 2026. He chose not to make a final statement before his death.

Shortly after the execution, 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone was also put to death at the same prison, marking the first same-day double execution in Florida in over 60 years. Occhicone was executed for the 1986 double murder of Raymond and Martha Artzner, the parents of his ex-girlfriend, Anita Gerrety.

Occhicone’s crimes involved a violent encounter at his ex-girlfriend’s parents’ home in Pasco County in 1986. He shot Raymond Artzner and later chased Anita through the house, resulting in the death of Martha Artzner. Despite Occhicone’s claims that the shootings were not premeditated, a jury convicted him and he has been on death row since then.

Following the rejection of his final appeals, Occhicone, 80, became the oldest person to be executed in modern Florida history. His execution came six hours after Duckett’s. This marked Florida’s first double execution day since 1964. Governor Ron DeSantis has increased the pace of executions in Florida, making it the busiest death chamber in the US as he nears the end of his term. This surge in executions contrasts with the national trend of declining use of the death penalty over the past two decades. Florida has significantly contributed to the increase in state executions nationwide since 2025.