Florida Kills Two Prisoners on Same Day, Both Elderly
by Jo Ellen Knott
On July 28, 2026, Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) officials executed 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone and former police officer James Duckett, 68, marking the first double execution in the state since 1964.
According to NBC News, Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has aggressively accelerated Florida’s capital punishment machinery, establishing the death chamber at Florida State Prison in Starke as the nation’s busiest. As DeSantis finishes his final term, his ongoing killing spree has accounted for 12 of the nation’s 19 executions in 2026, following a record-breaking 19 executions in 2025. Opponents like Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty condemned the back-to-back lethal injections as an unprecedented escalation of state violence, even as DeSantis continues signing warrants for long-tenured death row prisoners.
Less than one month later, on August 18, Florida executed yet another prisoner, William Silvia, 61. The Sunshine State accounts for such a large percentage of nationwide executions (32 of 70 since January 2025) that, when it is removed from the data set, the rest of the country shows a continuing decline in the practice.
One of the main reasons Florida remains an outlier is that, unlike most states where courts and prosecutors play a larger role, the governor holds the sole authority to sign death warrants, which directs a warden to carry out the execution within 180 days. Florida also has the lowest jury sentencing threshold in the country, requiring only 8 of 12 jurors to vote to impose a death sentence.
Sources: NBC News, Death Penalty Information Center
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