Florida has carried out its oldest-ever execution, putting 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone to death by lethal injection after he delivered a final statement to both his relatives and the family of the people he killed.
Occhicone was executed on Tuesday, July 28, at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m., making him the oldest prisoner ever executed by the state of Florida and the second-oldest inmate known to be put to death by lethal injection in modern U.S. history.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the procedure involved a three-drug protocol consisting of an anesthetic or sedative, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
In 1986, Occhicone was found guilty of murdering Raymond and Martha Artzner, who were the parents of his former girlfriend.
Just before the execution began, he was asked whether he wanted to say any final words.
CBS News reported that he expressed gratitude to members of his Christian community who had visited him during his time on death row.
He also addressed his own family as well as the Artzner family.
He said: I know it don’t mean much, but I’m sorry. I never meant to do what I did.”
Occhicone was not the only inmate executed at Florida State Prison that day.
Earlier the same day, former police officer James Aren Duckett was also executed in the same death chamber.
Duckett, 68, received the same three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m.
He had been convicted of raping and drowning 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987 while serving as a police officer.
Unlike Occhicone, Duckett chose not to give a final statement when asked.
“No sir.”
In the hours before their executions, both men sought emergency relief from the US Supreme Court.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected both appeals. In Duckett’s case, lawyers argued that he was innocent and said DNA evidence in the case had been mishandled by the state.
The court also dismissed arguments from Occhicone’s legal team, who said his kidney and prostate conditions created a risk that the execution would cause severe pain.
Opposition to the executions also came from outside the courtroom, including from Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, which released a statement.
“July 28 represents an unprecedented escalation of Florida’s use of the death penalty. These are two profoundly different cases, but they point to the same troubling reality: Florida continues to expand the use of capital punishment, despite mounting evidence that it is not what Floridians want.”
Despite those objections, both executions proceeded. It was the first time in 60 years that Florida had carried out two executions in a single day.
The deaths also brought Florida’s 2026 total to 12 executions, more than every other state combined.
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