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DeSantis on Florida double execution: ‘I don’t take joy’
‘Some of the victims’ families have been waiting a long time,’ he said.
Florida murder victim’s friend says James Duckett killed her
At an execution briefing outside Florida State Prison, best friend of Lakeland murder victim Jeanifer Shyan Weldon said James Duckett killed her, too.
Florida executed two inmates, James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone, on the same day for the first time since 1964.
Gov. Ron DeSantis stated he did not “take joy” in the executions, calling them a “weighty thing.”
DeSantis attributed the recent pace of executions to making up for delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he didn’t “take joy” over the state’s two executions in one day, calling it “a weighty thing.”
DeSantis spoke July 28 at the Florida Sheriffs Association’s summer conference at Trump National Doral, an 800-acre luxury golf resort just west of Miami, after the second execution.
“I just presided today over two executions in the same day, first time that’s happened in a long time,” he said. “And I don’t take joy in doing that, it’s a weighty thing.”
Recap: Florida puts to death 2 inmates in one day in rare double execution
He attributed a slowdown in capital punishment in recent years to the COVID pandemic: “All the normal operations kind of got upended … we got off our schedule there … But some of the victims’ families have been waiting a long time and some of them are just like, ‘when are we going to get justice?’ ”
James Duckett, a 68-year-old former police officer convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987, was executed by lethal injection at 1:19 p.m. ET. About five hours later, Florida executed Dominick Occhicone at 6:13 p.m. ET for the murder of his ex-fiancée’s parents in 1986.
At 80 years old, Occhicone became the second-oldest inmate ever executed in the United States and the oldest inmate ever executed in Florida, which is putting more elderly prisoners to death than any other state in the nation.
It also marks the first time since 1964 that Florida has executed two inmates on the same day, according to an execution database maintained by the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
DeSantis, a Republican governor who is term-limited this year, said he was frustrated at how long it takes from a defendant’s death sentence to the execution. Florida lawmakers previously have tried to expedite the process.
“… You shouldn’t be (on death row) for 20 years,” he said. “You should be able to try and maybe appeal, but then at some point we’ve got to get cracking here. But once it goes through that, you have responsibility to get it done.”
Florida’s rare double execution comes amid an aggressive push by the governor to put more inmates to death than the state ever has before. Of the 66 inmates executed in the United States since January 2025, Florida has carried out 31 of them – or 47% – including Duckett’s and Occhicone’s, according to an analysis by USA TODAY.
Since the start of this year, Florida has carried out 63% of the executions in the United States.
“I don’t know if ‘closure’ is the right word because you’ll probably never get full closure, but at least knowing justice was served is something that was very, very important to a lot of people,” DeSantis said.
USA TODAY’s Amanda Lee Myers contributed reporting. Jim Rosica is a member of the USA TODAY Network – Florida Capital Bureau. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X.com: @JimRosicaFL.
