Dominick Anthony Occhicone has been put to death in the same day as another inmate, nearly four decades after carrying out a brutal double murder at an ex-girlfriend’s home
A Florida man has become the oldest person to be executed in the US state’s history after receiving a lethal injection at the age of 80.
Dominick Anthony Occhicone was put to death for the 1986 double murder of Raymond and Martha Artzner, the parents of his ex-girlfriend, Anita Gerrety.
He becomes the state’s 12th person to be put to death for 2026, and the second in one calendar day in Florida.
His death comes nearly four decades following his brutal crime. At around 3am on June 10, 1986, Occhicone knocked on the door of his ex’s parents’ Pasco County home. As per court records, he wished to rekindle their relationship. He left when Anita threatened to call the sheriff.
He returned an hour later and this time, he came with lethal intent. Anita’s father Raymond tried to call the sheriff’s office, but the phone line had been cut at the junction box, prosecutors said.
Occhicone then shot Anita’s father Raymond in the face. As per the Herald-Tribune, Occhicone then broke through a locked door and chased his ex through the house, but she was able to get outside with her daughter, she later testified.
She heard gunshots ring out behind her and her mother, Martha Artzner, was later found dead.
Raymond Artzner lived long enough to tell deputies who shot him but died at the hospital, prosecutors said. Occhicone did not deny the evidence later in court, but argued the shootings were not premeditated. He was not believed by a jury of his peers, and has been on death row ever since.
But now, 40 years after the brutal revenge slaying of his ex’s parents, Occhicone’s execution has finally gone ahead after forward after the Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected all of his final appeals earlier on in the week.
Occhicone therefore became the oldest person executed in modern history in Florida and the second-oldest put to death in the US after the 2018 execution of Walter Moody, who was executed at age 83.
Occhicone’s death came six hours after the execution of 68-year-old James Duckett at noon.
Duckett, a former policeman died by lethal injection for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while he was working as an cop in central Florida in 1987. He was 11th inmate to be executed by the state in 2026. When asked, he declined to make a final statement and instead chose to respond with “no sir” when asked.
Four minutes later, he was shaken by a prison warden who also shouted Duckett’s name and found to be unresponsive. He was confirmed dead shortly thereafter on Tuesday in the wake of a lethal injection cocktail of three drugs at Florida state prison near Starke.
The double executions day is Florida’s first since 1964, when Blake Emmett and Dawson Sie were both executed in the electric chair. The last time any state carried out two executions in one day was back in 2017, when Arkansas held back-to-back executions.
Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has made his state’s death chamber the busiest in the US as the end of his final term approaches. DeSantis has previously said too many families have waited too long to see justice, hence the uptick in lethal injections. Nationwide, the death penalty had been on the decline for more than 20 years. That number has now tracked back upwards behind the increased pace set in Florida. Since 2025, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions across the US.
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