Florida-Double Execution

Death penalty protesters Tony Herlich, left, and Abraham Bonowitz toll a bell with SueZann Bosler during a demonstration in front of the Lake County Courthouse in Tavares, Fla., Tuesday, July 28, 2026.

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Florida puts ex-police officer to death for girl's murder, first of 2 executions set for single day

Florida puts ex-police officer to death for girl's murder, first of 2 executions set for single day

A former police officer convicted of killing a young girl decades ago has been put to death in Florida, the first of two men set to be executed by the state in a single day. Sixty-eight-year-old James Aren Duckett was pronounced dead Tuesday following a lethal injection at the state prison near Starke. He is the 11th inmate executed in Florida this year and was convicted of raping and drowning an 11-year-old girl in central Florida in 1987. Early Tuesday evening, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was scheduled to become the oldest prisoner executed in Florida’s modern history. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986.