OAN Staff Lillian Mann
2:28 PM – Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Two convicted murderers who have been on Florida’s death row for decades are set to be executed on the same day, according to court records.

On Tuesday, a letter from Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) to Florida State Prison Warden Randall Polk stated that the execution of 69-year-old James Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer, is set for July 28^th, the same day that 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone’s execution has been scheduled.

Duckett was convicted of raping and murdering 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in Lake County in 1988, while Occhicone was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the 1986 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in Pasco County.

Duckett was originally scheduled for execution on March 31, 2026. However, his execution was temporarily halted when the Florida Supreme Court granted a rare stay to allow for advanced DNA testing on physical evidence from the crime scene.

That stay was lifted on July 8, 2026, after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s testing came back inconclusive, failing to provide any exonerating evidence. In the same ruling, the state’s high court denied Duckett’s latest appeal, clearing the way for Governor DeSantis to reschedule his execution for July 28^th.

For nearly 40 years, Duckett has maintained his innocence and continues to seek clemency, despite eyewitness testimony, fingerprint matches, and physical evidence presented at his trial. His legal team, however, has criticized the state’s decision to schedule his execution on the same day as Occhicone’s, calling the double execution unprecedented and logistically reckless. Prosecutors said Duckett abducted the young girl from a convenience store and then later strangled and drowned her body in a lake.

“We are disappointed by the Governor’s decision to set a new execution date for our client James Duckett after the State’s own decisions prevented a full and reliable evaluation that could have demonstrated his long-maintained innocence,” Duckett’s legal team said in a statement. “It is particularly shameful that the Governor chose a date just two weeks away and set the execution on the very same day as the already scheduled execution of Dominick Occhicone.”

 

“We are committed to seeking every avenue of relief for Mr. Duckett ahead of his scheduled July 28^th execution so that the State of Florida does not execute an innocent man,” they added.

Occhicone was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the 1986 home-invasion shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. Due to a combination of exhaustive appeals, shifting state death penalty laws, and systemic judicial delays, he has spent nearly 40 years on death row. At 80 years old, Occhicone’s impending execution would make him the second-oldest prisoner put to death in modern U.S. history.

He is surpassed only by Walter Moody Jr., who was executed in Alabama in 2018 at age 83 for the mail-bomb murders of a federal judge and a civil rights attorney.

The state of Florida has carried out 10 executions in 2026 as of Wednesday.

Duckett is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on July 28^th at 12:00 p.m. ET, and Occhicone is set to be executed via lethal injection at 6 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison in Raiford.

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