SCOTUS Rejects Last-Ditch Appeals, Clearing Path for FL’s Historic Double Execution

The U.S. Supreme Court firmly rejected last-minute applications for stays of execution from two Florida death row inmates, allowing the state to carry out its first double execution in more than six decades and deliver long-overdue justice to the families of their victims.

In unsigned orders issued July 28, 2026, the justices denied the application for stays in Duckett, James, et al. v. DeSantis, Gov. of FL, et al., along with related filings for James A. Duckett.

Separately, the justices denied the stay application and certiorari petition in Occhicone, Dominick A. v. Florida (26-5158 / 26A121).

The swift denials came just hours before the scheduled lethal injections at Florida State Prison in Raiford.

James Aren Duckett, 68, a former Mascotte police officer, was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection.

He declined to make a final statement. Hours later, at 6:13 p.m., 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was executed, becoming the oldest inmate put to death in modern Florida history.

It marked the first time since 1964 that the Sunshine State carried out two executions on the same day.

Duckett was convicted in 1988 of the horrific 1987 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee.

On the night of May 11, 1987, the young girl was last seen near a convenience store in Lake County, where she had gone to buy a pencil.

Evidence showed she entered Duckett’s patrol car. Her body was later found floating in a nearby lake, sexually battered, strangled, and drowned.

Investigators recovered her fingerprints on the hood of Duckett’s police vehicle, along with other physical evidence linking him to the crime.

A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and sexual battery; he was sentenced to death in 1988. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence in 1990.

Despite maintaining his innocence for nearly four decades, Duckett’s repeated appeals failed.

Earlier this year, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant, the Florida Supreme Court temporarily stayed the execution to allow additional DNA testing on clothing, swabs, and fingernail scrapings from the crime scene.

The results proved inconclusive and did not exonerate him.

Lower courts rejected further testing requests as procedurally barred and lacking merit.

The state high court denied his final postconviction motion and stay request on July 24, clearing the way for the July 28 date.

Duckett’s lawyers then raced to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay to pursue yet more DNA claims.

The justices declined without comment.

Occhicone’s case was equally cold-blooded.

On June 10, 1986, the then-40-year-old went to the Pasco County home of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, Raymond and Martha Artzner.

After being turned away, he returned armed, cut the telephone lines, confronted and fatally shot 66-year-old Raymond Artzner outside the house, then forced his way inside and shot 62-year-old Martha Artzner four times.

His former girlfriend escaped with her child.

Occhicone received a life sentence for Raymond’s murder and a death sentence for Martha’s after a jury recommended capital punishment by a 7-5 vote.

Courts repeatedly upheld the sentence over the decades.

Occhicone’s final appeals claimed advanced age, health issues, alleged drug shortages for lethal injection, and challenges to Florida’s execution pace.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected them all.

The U.S. Supreme Court likewise denied his stay application and cert petition on the day of the scheduled execution.

Florida officials and victims’ advocates welcomed the high court’s refusal to intervene.

The executions under DeSantis continue the governor’s record of enforcing lawful death sentences after exhaustive appeals, prioritizing the rights of victims who waited nearly 40 years for closure.

State Attorney statements emphasized that the rulings brought final justice for young Teresa McAbee and the Artzner family.

Critics on the left and anti-death-penalty groups had pushed for delays based on age and procedural claims.

Still, the courts properly recognized that endless litigation cannot erase the brutality of these crimes or the finality of jury verdicts rendered long ago.