Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on Friday, June 26, 2026, setting the stage for the state’s tenth execution of the year. With this action, Florida is on track to carry out more executions in 2026 than all other U.S. states combined.
The condemned man, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone, Jr. of Pasco County, will become the oldest person ever executed in recorded Florida history. This breaks a record set just one day prior on June 25, when 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer was put to death. Occhicone’s execution is scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.
The case dates back forty years to the early morning hours of June 10, 1986. According to official records, Occhicone traveled to the home of Raymond and Martha Artzner, the parents of his former girlfriend. His ex-girlfriend and her young child were living at the residence at the time. Occhicone initially woke his former girlfriend by knocking on her bedroom’s sliding glass door. When she refused to speak with him and threatened to call the police, he left the property.
Occhicone returned to the home a short time later, armed with a handgun. He cut the household’s telephone lines and woke the family. When Raymond Artzner stepped outside to confront him, Occhicone shot and killed him.
As his former girlfriend and her child fled the property to escape, Occhicone broke into the house through a locked door. Once inside, he shot Martha Artzner four times, inflicting fatal wounds.
In September 1987, a Pasco County jury found Occhicone guilty on two counts of first-degree murder. Although the jury recommended death for both counts, the trial court judge ultimately handed down a split sentence. Occhicone received life imprisonment without the eligibility for parole for 25 years for the murder of Raymond Artzner, and the death penalty for the murder of Martha Artzner.
Over the next nearly four decades, Occhicone’s legal defense launched a series of unsuccessful appeals through both state and federal courts. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal in 1990, and the United States Supreme Court subsequently denied certiorari review. Later efforts, including state and federal habeas corpus petitions and successive postconviction motions, were consistently denied by various courts over the ensuing decades.
The final legal and administrative hurdles were cleared on June 26, 2026. In a formal letter to the governor, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier stated that a full review of the case history revealed no active stays of execution issued by any court of competent jurisdiction. Uthmeier advised the governor that “the record is legally sufficient to support the issuance of a death warrant.”
Additionally, state leaders reviewed the case under the state’s clemency guidelines, but the official death warrant notes that “it has been determined that executive clemency is not appropriate.” Warden Randall Polk of the Florida State Prison has been directed to carry out the sentence as scheduled.
READ: Florida, Alabama Duo Facing Decades Behind Bars After Federal Drug Distribution Indictment
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