The last time Florida executed two people on the same day, Lyndon Johnson had not yet signed the Civil Rights Act.
The date was May 12, 1964 [1]. On July 28, 2026, the state did it again.
James Aren Duckett, 68, was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. [1] He had been a police officer when he was convicted of raping and drowning 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987.
Asked for a final statement, he said 'no sir' [1].
The detail that will follow this case is the evidence.
Duckett maintained his innocence, and the Florida Supreme Court ordered DNA testing of old evidence. The results came back inconclusive - 'they did not exonerate Duckett or definitively connect him to the crime' [1].
A state can lawfully execute a man on a jury verdict that a later test neither confirms nor overturns. Whether it should is the question an inconclusive result leaves sitting in the open, and it cannot now be answered.
Duckett was Florida's 11th execution of 2026 [1].
Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, was scheduled for 6 p.m. as the 12th. He was convicted of killing Raymond and Martha Artzner in 1986 - the parents of an ex-girlfriend who had refused to speak to him. He cut the telephone lines to their home before shooting them both [2].
At 80 he became the second-oldest prisoner known to be put to death in modern US history, behind 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr., executed in Alabama in 2018 [2].
Set this against the trend.
Governor Ron DeSantis oversaw 19 executions in 2025, a state record [1]. Twelve by late July puts 2026 on a comparable footing.
Nationally, the last time two executions took place hours apart anywhere in the country was Arkansas in April 2017 [1].
What changed in Florida is not the law, which has not been rewritten, and not the crimes, which are decades old.
What changed is the pace at which warrants are being signed.
