Overview
- Florida executed two men on Tuesday, July 28, with James Aren Duckett pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. after a lethal injection and Dominick Anthony Occhicone pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a second injection in the same chamber.
- Duckett’s execution followed a Florida Supreme Court stay earlier this year to allow post‑conviction DNA testing that returned inconclusive results and left his conviction intact.
- Occhicone was executed at age 80 after courts rejected age‑based Eighth Amendment challenges, making him the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern records.
- Governor Ron DeSantis scheduled both executions as part of a rapid increase in Florida executions that has made the state responsible for a disproportionate share of U.S. executions in 2026.
- Religious leaders and death‑penalty opponents raised moral and procedural objections, citing split jury death recommendations, limits of old DNA evidence, the state’s clemency record, and a scheduled next execution on August 18 that will keep these issues under legal and public scrutiny.