The State of Florida executed 68-year-old James Duckett by lethal injection at noon today at Florida State Prison, carrying out the first phase of a historic same-day double execution.
Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer sentenced to death for the 1988 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee, maintained his innocence until his execution.
Following the execution, defense representatives released a statement criticizing the state’s handling of biological evidence in Duckett’s case. Legal counsel highlighted that testing ordered prior to the execution fully consumed a semen sample recovered from the victim’s underwear without producing a conclusive DNA profile. Defense attorneys had petitioned to send the evidence to an out-of-state laboratory specializing in degraded samples, but state courts approved testing at a Florida facility selected by the state.
The statement also pointed to long-standing defense challenges regarding the trial’s evidence, including an 8–4 split jury recommendation, recanted eyewitness testimony, and microscopic hair comparison analysis performed by an FBI technician whose methodology was later discredited during a federal review.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Duckett’s final appeals on Friday, ruling that requests for testing on additional items were procedurally barred and that the consumption of the primary biological sample occurred as a routine byproduct of the testing process.
Duckett’s execution marks the 136th put to death in Florida’s modern capital punishment era.
The state is now preparing for its second scheduled execution of the day. At 6:00 p.m., prison officials are set to execute 80-year-old Dominick A. Occhicone, who was convicted in the 1986 murders of Raymond and Martha Artzner in Pasco County.
The state high court unanimously denied Occhicone’s final appeals earlier this week, rejecting arguments regarding his advanced age, failing health, reported shortages of execution drugs, and the psychological impact of back-to-back executions on correctional staff. Justices also affirmed that modern state statutes requiring at least eight jurors to recommend death do not apply retroactively to Occhicone’s 1987 conviction, which followed a 7–5 jury vote.
If Occhicone’s execution proceeds as scheduled this evening, he will become the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history and the second-oldest in modern U.S. history, behind Alabama inmate Walter Moody Jr., who was executed at age 83 in 2018.
Today’s proceedings mark the first time Florida has executed two inmates on the same date since 1964, when Blake Emmett and Dawson Sie were executed in the electric chair. Executive clemency has not been granted in a Florida death penalty case since 1983.
READ: Florida Jury Sentences 61-Year-Old Man To Death For Second Time In 2005 Murder
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
