Experts warn of risks over Florida's 'incredibly rare' double execution due to take place today
Today (July 28), Florida is set to perform the state's first double execution since the start of the modern death penalty in 1976 - but it doesn't come without risks, experts warn.
James Duckett, 68, will face the lethal injection in the afternoon, with Dominick Occhicone, 80, also facing the same method of execution six hours later.
There are currently around 2,000 prisoners on death row in the United States, however, executions don't come quickly. In the country, the average time a prisoner spends awaiting execution on death row is between 15 and 22 years. This is due to factors including multi-level legal appeals.
These could even happen last minute, so while the executions are planned to go ahead today, they could also be stopped by legal interventions. Should they both go ahead as planned, however, they don't come without risk.
Advert
“By rushing executions, Florida is increasing the chances that these and other men will suffer a torturous death,” Matt Wells, deputy director of human rights group Reprieve US, told the Guardian.
The group have examined 'botched executions' since 1976, and they have found that speed was a factor behind many of them.
“Men could die in agony and witnesses wouldn’t know it,” Wells said. “Florida uses a paralytic designed to prevent signs of visible pain.”
Meanwhile, Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, added: “Two executions in a day is incredibly rare.”
The last time two inmates were executed on the same day in the United States was in April 2017, in Arkansas. It hasn't been done in Florida since 1964, according to correctional records.
The only other time this has been done, according to records, was in Texas in 2000.
This year, the state has already carried out 10 executions. In 2025, a record high of 19 were carried out.
Maya Foa, the CEO of Reprieve, told CNN that this was significant in the double executions.
“To add in that kind of pressure in Florida, where already there have been more executions in that one state alone than there have been in the rest of the US this year, it’s asking for more problems,” she said.
Occhicone will become the oldest inmate to be executed, should his lethal injection go ahead. Just a few weeks ago, Dusty Ray Spencer, who stabbed his wife, Karen Spencer, to death in 1992, became the oldest person to be executed in the state's history, at 74 years old.
Occhicone was sentenced to death in 1986, after being convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents. Duckett was convicted of murdering Teresa McAbee, 11, in 1987.
Death row psychologist and expert, Bill Kimberlin, has described his experiences witnessing a 'botched' execution.
Speaking to UNILAD, he said: "Most people think it's like putting an animal down, but my very first execution lasted over two hours."
"The guy had to get off of the table to go to the restroom and then come back and hop back on because it was taking so long," Kimberlin added, stating that the EMTs 'are not always successful' in finding the veins of the inmates straight away, prolonging the time it takes.
Which states have the death penalty?
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 27 US states have the death penalty, though it is not actively carried out in all of them.
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California (executive hold on executions since 2019)
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Ohio (executive hold on executions since 2020)
- Oklahoma
- Oregon (executive hold on executions since 2011)
- Pennsylvania (executive hold on executions since 2015)
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Wyoming
Which states have abolished the death penalty?
- Alaska (1957)
- Colorado (2020)
- Connecticut (2012)
- Delaware (2016)
- Hawaii (1957)
- Illinois (2011)
- Iowa (1965)
- Maine (1887)
- Maryland (2013)
- Massachusetts (1984)
- Michigan (1847)
- Minnesota (1911)
- New Hampshire (2019)
- New Jersey (2007)
- New Mexico (2009)
- New York (2007)
- North Dakota (1973)
- Rhode Island (1984)
- Vermont (1972)
- Virginia (2021)
- Washington (2023)
- West Virginia (1965)
- Wisconsin (1853)
Kiesha Dosanjh