Florida executes 2 men Tuesday, a 1st in modern death penalty history - Tampa Bay Times
Florida executed two men on Tuesday, marking the first time in modern state history that two capital punishments were carried out on the same day. This follows a significant increase in the use of the death penalty under Governor Ron DeSantis.
Why it matters
The event highlights a major shift in state-level judicial policy and the ongoing national debate regarding capital punishment.
Florida executed two men Tuesday for separate murder cases from the 1980s amid a record-breaking surge in the state’s pursuit of capital punishment.James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone both died by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, near the city of Starke, becoming the 11th and 12th prisoners the state has put to death this year.Duckett, 68, convicted in the 1987 murder of a young girl near Orlando, was declared dead early Tuesday afternoon, following a brief delay as his lawyers unsuccessfully asked the nation’s highest court to spare his life. Occhicone , condemned for the 1986 Pasco County murders of his former fianceé’s parents, was executed five hours later.
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