Florida is on the brink of a rare event, as it prepares to become the first state in nearly ten years to conduct two executions in a single day. The executions will involve a child murderer and an 80-year-old man.
Former law enforcement officer James Duckett, aged 68, was executed by lethal injection at 1:19 p.m. on Tuesday at a state prison near Starke, Florida. Duckett was convicted for the rape and drowning of an 11-year-old girl in 1987.
The next execution is slated for 6 p.m., when Dominick Occhicone, aged 80, is scheduled to be put to death. Occhicone was found guilty of murdering the parents of his ex-girlfriend in 1986.
Should Occhicone’s execution proceed, he will set a record as the oldest inmate executed in Florida’s history. This would also make him the second oldest individual to be executed in modern US history.
Earlier this month, Dennis Sochor received the distinction of being the oldest inmate executed in Florida. His death penalty was carried out for the murder of a woman he encountered at a New Year’s Eve celebration in the early hours of 1982.
The oldest prisoner known to have been executed in US history is Walter Moody Jr., who was put to death aged 83 in Alabama in 2018.
Moody was convicted over a mail bomb campaign in 1989 that killed a federal judge and a civil rights attorney.