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 28th, the same day that 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone’s execution had been previously 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 former fiancée’s parents in Pasco County.
Duckett has been charged with kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of McAbee, after prosecutors said he abducted her from a convenience store and strangled and drowned her body in a lake.
Duckett was originally scheduled to be executed on March 31st; however, pending DNA testing and analysis led to a longer stay behind bars. The Florida Supreme Court lifted the stay after the results were found to be inconclusive and denied a new appeal on July 8th.
Duckett, who claimed his innocence for nearly 40 years, is still advocating for clemency, despite eyewitness accounts, previous DNA evidence, fingerprints and evidence on the scene.
The convicted murderer’s legal team, however, sharply criticized the scheduling of the execution dates on the same day as Occhicone’s.
“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 28th execution so that the State of Florida does not execute an innocent man,” they added.
Nonetheless, Duckett is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on July 28th at 12:00 p.m. ET, and Occhicone is set to be executed at 6 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison in Raiford.
Occhicone was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder after he broke into his ex-girlfriend’s parents’ home and fatally shot the couple in 1986.
Due to a combination of the extensive U.S. appeals process, structural shifts in Florida’s death penalty laws and judicial delays, Occhicone has spent nearly 40 years on death row.
His execution would mark him as the second oldest prisoner to be put to death in modern United States history following the 2018 execution of 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. in Alabama over the killing of a federal judge and a Black civil rights attorney.
The state of Florida has carried out 10 executions in 2026 as of Wednesday.
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