Florida carried out an execution of James Aren Duckett, 68, on Tuesday, marking the first of two lethal injections planned for a single day in the state. Duckett was convicted of the 1987 rape and drowning of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while employed as a police officer in central Florida. He was pronounced dead early in the afternoon following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
The execution represented the 11th carried out by Florida this year. Teresa McAbee’s mother, Dorthy Tula, expressed that she had waited nearly 40 years to see justice, while the girl’s cousin noted that Duckett had abused his position of authority. Duckett declined to make a final statement before his execution.
Later Tuesday evening, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was scheduled to be executed, having been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986. If the execution proceeded, Occhicone would become the second-oldest inmate put to death in modern U.S. history. The dual executions represented the first time in nearly a decade that any state carried out two executions on the same day, with Arkansas last accomplishing this in 2017.
Governor Ron DeSantis, in his final term, has significantly increased the pace of executions in Florida. The state has carried out 30 executions since the beginning of 2025, accounting for nearly half of all executions nationwide during that period. DeSantis previously stated that justice delayed constitutes a denial of justice and expressed an obligation to ensure smooth proceedings for victims’ families. A death penalty advocacy group argued the dual executions represented an unprecedented escalation of capital punishment in the state.
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