Florida executions today: Dominick Anthony Occhicone to be executed, ex-cop James Aren Duckett put to death for girl's murder

STARKE, Fla. -- A former police officer convicted of the on-duty rape and murder of a young girl was put to death Tuesday, the first of two lethal injections planned for a single day in Florida, hours before an 80-year-old man was to become the second-oldest inmate executed in modern U.S. history. Tuesday marked the first time since two convicted murderers were executed on a single day - in Arkansas in 2017 - that a state has planned virtually back-to-back executions. It also comes 18 months after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis began stepping up executions at a pace unseen in Florida since the U.S. death penalty was reinstated in 1976, making his the busiest death chamber in the nation.

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