July 28 will bring Florida’s first same-day double execution in more than 60 years, with James Duckett, 68, set for noon and Dominick Occhicone, 80, six hours later.
10 executions already carried out in 2026 put Florida on track to top last year’s modern-era state record of 19, a pace critics tie to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s death-penalty policy changes and warrant-signing discretion.
Occhicone would become the oldest person executed in modern Florida history, and advocates say his kidney disease, heart problems and frailty underscore their argument that the state is killing elderly men decades after their crimes.
Florida’s death-row system also faces scrutiny because the state has logged 30 exonerations since 1973, the most in the nation, even as death sentences from juries have fallen to 5 in 2025 from 46 three decades earlier.
Nearly 250 prisoners remain on Florida’s death row, and opponents say the opaque selection of execution dates has turned capital punishment into a political tool rather than a transparent public-safety measure.