Florida on Tuesday carried out two executions in a single day, the first state to do so in nearly a decade. Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke, nearly five hours after James Aren Duckett, 68, received a lethal injection in the same death chamber. Occhicone became the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history and the oldest known prisoner executed in Florida since the state began modern record-keeping a century ago.

Duckett, a former police officer, was convicted of raping and drowning 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in central Florida in 1987. Occhicone was convicted of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriends parents in June 1986.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has the authority under Florida law to set execution dates, decided earlier this month to carry out both executions on the same day. The lethal injections several hours apart were the first nearly back-to-back executions since Arkansas put two men to death three hours apart in 2017.

Florida Department of Corrections records show multiple executions on a single day were more common in the past, the last being in 1964. The U.S. Supreme Court denied last appeals from both men Tuesday.

Florida has become the nation's busiest death chamber as DeSantis approaches the end of his final term in office. Since 2025 began, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions across the country. Duckett became the 11th Florida inmate executed this year, and Florida leads the nation with 12 executions to date in 2026, more than all other states combined.

DeSantis oversaw a record 19 executions last year, more in a single year than any other Florida governor since the U.S. reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Nationwide, a total of 19 executions including Tuesday's have been carried out this year.

Another execution in Florida is set for August. All Florida executions are by injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections. DeSantis has rarely commented on the pace of executions, previously noting some on death row had committed crimes as far back as the 1980s. The governor said last year he felt he owed it to victims' families to make sure executions ran smoothly.