A former police officer convicted of raping and murdering 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in central Florida in 1987 has been executed after almost four decades. James Aren Duckett, aged 68, was pronounced dead following a lethal injection at a Florida state prison near Starke. Duckett is the 11th inmate put to death by the state in 2026. He chose not to make a final statement and simply responded with “no sir” when asked to do so.
Four minutes after the injection, a prison warden called out Duckett’s name, but there was no response from the convicted criminal. His execution occurred just before 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was set to become the second-oldest inmate executed in modern US history, marking the first instance of two executions in a day in nearly ten years. The last time a state carried out dual executions in one day was in 2017, when Arkansas held consecutive executions.
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has escalated the use of the death penalty in his state as his final term nears its end. DeSantis has emphasized the need for justice for families who have waited a long time. This increase in executions in Florida contrasts with the declining trend of the death penalty nationwide over the past two decades. Since 2025, Florida has accounted for almost half of all state executions in the US.
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