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Rights groups condemn secrecy surrounding killings and say hurry to execute raises chance of ‘torturous’ deaths

Florida is preparing on Tuesday to carry out the state’s first double execution within a single day since the start of the modern era of the US death penalty in 1976.

Barring last-minute legal intervention, James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at noon on Tuesday at Florida state prison near Starke. Six hours later, Dominick Occhicone, 80, faces the same fate.

Should both killings be completed, it would be the first time since 2017 that a death penalty state has conducted more than one execution on the same day. On 24 April 2017 Arkansas administered lethal doses to two prisoners, Jack Jones and Marcel Williams, just three hours apart and amid chaotic scenes that suggested the procedures were botched.

In Florida itself, a review by the Associated Press showed that 1964 was the last time there were multiple judicial killing on a single day.

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[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 9 points 23 hours ago

James Aren Duckett (born September 4, 1957)[1] is an American convicted child murderer, sex offender, and suspected serial killer sentenced to death in Florida. Duckett, a former police officer under the Mascotte Police Department, was charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee on May 11, 1987. Duckett was said to have abducted the girl, who was raped and later strangled to death, and her body was found abandoned near a lake. Apart from McAbee's murder, Duckett is also a suspect in the 1987 unsolved murder of 14-year-old Jeanifer Shyan Weldon and 22-year-old Ronette Lynn Peterson in 1986. Duckett was convicted of McAbee's murder and sentenced to death. He is set to be executed on July 28, 2026.

The second one abused his wife then shot her parents to death while drunk.

[-] dat@lemmy.ml 8 points 22 hours ago

The argument against capital punishment is not about whether or not the crimes are heinous. It is important to acknowledge how terrible these crimes are to have a moral discussion

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

Sure, but neither of these people are being put to death for being black/brown or having a bit of weed on them at 16...

[-] Abyssian@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

You really don't pick up on social cues very well. We were saying this is fucking awful, not commenting on their actual charges.

And reading a person's charges in the US doesn't tell you nearly as much as you seem to think it does, since the countries penal system runs on over charging everyone who can't afford to defend themselves as much as possible then pressuring them into taking a plea deal for reduced sentencing.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 8 points 22 hours ago

I’ll bite …… I don’t pick up on social clues very well. What is the objection to posting the crimes?

[-] Abyssian@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

Edited above to clarify. Slothrop wasn't really feeling fuzzy and warm at the thought of executing the elderly, I wasn't genuinely goose stepping to polish a flag, and reading the charges against a person doesn't really tell you anything. See: People charged as terrorists for spray painting signs or moving a box of magazines.

[-] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 1 points 12 hours ago

Raping and killing a child with evidence of their dead strangled body seems hard to misinterpret, though.

I do understand what you mean about bogus charges like the people who got charged with terrorism for using signal but this is very different.

[-] Abyssian@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

I've known enough people who spent years in prison for things they genuinely didn't do that unless I actually know all of the relevant details of a case and situation far beyond what can be found in a quick Google search I'm not going to sit on the internet and judge a person. Oddly enough I knew a man who was exonerated after around 15 years in prison for killing his own kid.

It's really easy to read of an awful crime and judge the person accused of it as a monster.

[-] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 2 points 11 hours ago

This guy was seen luring the kid in his police car and they found his pubic hair on her dead body and hers and his fingerprints on the hood of his car.

I do feel you on people getting convicted for bullshit that isn't true though. There was a man I read about in I think saint Louis that was proven innocent with DNA and even the mayor of saint Louis tried freeing him and they wouldn't do it they killed him anyway.

They didn't want to dip into the treasury to pay the insane lawsuit that was going to happen when they freed him is suspect. Which is why I'm usually against the death penalty.

this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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