Supreme Court Greenlights Rare Double Execution in Florida

The U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected appeals for stays of execution for two Florida death row inmates, allowing the state to proceed with the execution of its eleventh and twelfth inmates this year as planned on Tuesday.

The justices turned down two separate petitions that sought to delay these scheduled executions.

James Duckett, a former police officer aged 68, was originally slated for execution at noon on Tuesday. However, the Supreme Court’s decision to grant a stay temporarily postponed the execution.

According to local media sources, Duckett was executed via lethal injection and was declared dead at 1:19 p.m.

Duckett was convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl in 1987.

The Supreme Court also denied a separate stay for Dominick Occhicone, an 80-year-old who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986.

Occhicone’s execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. If executed, he would become the oldest inmate executed in Florida.

If carried out, Occhicone’s execution would mark the first time Florida executed two inmates in one day since 1964. It would be the just the second double execution in the U.S. in the 2000s and the first since Arkansas executed two inmates in 2007.

Florida executed 19 inmates in 2025, according to a News Media review of Florida Department of Corrections data. The 11 people the state has executed so far this year are more than double the next closest state, with Texas having executed four inmates this year, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.