Florida has executed two condemned inmates on the same day for the first time in over six decades, a milestone that underscores the unprecedented pace at which this southeastern US state is carrying out capital punishment in 2025. The judicial authorities carried out both death sentences on Tuesday, reigniting a national debate over the ethical and constitutional limits of capital justice.

Two executions in six hours

James Aren Duckett, 68, a former police officer, was lethally injected at 13:19 (local time) at Florida State Prison in Raiford. Six hours later, at 18:13, Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, followed. Both had exhausted their legal resources in state courts, according to 20minutos.es.

The last time Florida executed two inmates on the same day was in 1964, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The sixty-year interval underscores the current pace capital justice has acquired in the state, where administrative and political factors have converged to accelerate execution proceedings.

Distant crimes, failed defence

Duckett was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder in 1987 of Teresa McAbee, an 11-year-old girl. His case included a dramatic turn in March, when Florida's Supreme Court halted the execution to review DNA evidence his lawyers believed was exculpatory. However, an independent expert ruled it inconclusive in June, neither incriminating nor exonerating him.

Occhicone, for his part, had been sentenced for the 1986 murder of his ex-girlfriend's parents. His defence argued that his advanced age—he suffered kidney and heart failure, along with severe sensory loss—made his execution a cruel punishment prohibited by the Constitution. The jury that convicted him was also not unanimous: seven votes against five.

A milestone that troubles

With these two deaths, Florida has accumulated 31 executions since January 2025. Across the United States, 66 people have been executed in the same period, meaning Florida accounts for nearly half the national total. In 2024, the state carried out 19 lethal injections; this year the figure stands at 12 to date.

The figure is particularly significant when compared with the rest of the country: Florida executes more death row inmates this year than all other states combined, according to the organisation Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP).

Occhicone, Florida's oldest executed inmate

At 80 years old, Occhicone became the oldest prisoner ever executed in Florida and the second-oldest in the entire United States, behind only Walter Moody, executed in Alabama in 2018 at age 83.

The lawyers for both condemned inmates filed a joint lawsuit on Friday before a federal court arguing that carrying out two executions on the same day multiplies the risk of operational failures and subjects prison officials to unacceptable moral harm. A judge dismissed the request, and the United States Supreme Court rejected the final attempts to halt the sentences.

Where is American capital justice headed?

The acceleration of executions in Florida raises profound questions about how American criminal justice functions. While some see it as the fulfilment of legal sentences, organisations like FADP accuse courts of protecting the state from serious investigations into how it executes, and warn that the current pace compromises procedural safety and the wellbeing of those involved in the process.