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The Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected an appeal and stay request from death row inmate Dominick A. Occhicone, clearing the way for his scheduled execution on July 28.
In an unsigned per curiam opinion, the state’s high court affirmed a lower court order denying Occhicone’s second successive motion for postconviction relief. The justices also denied his request to halt the execution and ordered the mandate to issue immediately, adding that the court will not entertain any motions for rehearing.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Occhicone’s death warrant on June 26. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m. on July 28.
Occhicone, 80, was sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of his former fiancée’s mother, Martha Artzner, in Pasco County. Trial records show Occhicone broke into the home armed with a handgun, shot his ex-fiancée’s father, Raymond Artzner, outside, and then broke through a locked door to shoot her mother four times inside. The jury recommended death by a 7–5 vote for Martha Artzner’s murder, while the trial judge sentenced him to life imprisonment for the death of Raymond Artzner.
Defense attorneys raised several challenges following the issuance of the warrant, pointing to a reported nationwide shortage of the lethal injection drug etomidate, Occhicone’s advanced age and deteriorating physical health, and the rapid pace of executions in the state. The defense also sought public records from the Florida Department of Corrections regarding drug inventories and protocol compliance.
The Supreme Court rejected the public records request, ruling that Occhicone failed to establish a direct connection to a colorable legal claim. Regarding assertions of drug shortages or protocol deviations, the court wrote that “speculative allegations of misconduct—particularly speculative allegations that FDC may engage in future misconduct—do not establish a colorable claim for postconviction relief.”
The court ruled that Occhicone’s claims regarding his age and physical health—which include chronic heart and kidney disease, severe vision loss, and mobility issues—were untimely under state procedural rules and lacked merit under Eighth Amendment precedent.
“Whether Occhicone seeks a categorical or as-applied exemption based on his advanced age is a distinction without a difference,” the court wrote, noting that state constitutional protections align with U.S. Supreme Court interpretations, which do not recognize age-based exemptions. The justices added that arguments regarding physical decline “sound in clemency, which of course is the province of the executive branch.”
Attorneys had also argued that the pace of recent executions caused emotional strain on prison personnel, requesting a six-month moratorium to assess the impact on staff. The court denied the request, stating state procedural rules do not permit such delays and noting Occhicone identified no legal standard recognizing an Eighth Amendment violation based on the distress of correctional employees.
Finally, the justices dismissed challenges based on the jury’s original 7–5 death recommendation. While Florida law currently requires at least eight jurors to recommend death, the court held that the statutory change does not apply retroactively to invalidate Occhicone’s sentence.
Chief Justice Couriel and Justices Muñiz, Grosshans, Francis, Sasso, and Tanenbaum concurred in the decision, while Justice Labarga concurred in the result.
If executed, Occhicone would become the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history, surpassing 74-year-old Dennis Sochor, who was executed earlier this month for the 1982 murder of Patricia Gifford. Nationally, Occhicone would be the second-oldest person put to death in the modern era, behind Alabama inmate Walter Moody Jr., who was executed at age 83 in 2018.
Occhicone’s execution is set to take place just six hours after the scheduled execution of 68-year-old James Duckett at noon the same day.
Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer convicted in the 1988 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee, had his stay of execution lifted on July 8 after court-ordered DNA testing yielded inconclusive results.
If both executions proceed on July 28, it will mark the first time Florida has carried out a double execution on the same day since 1964. Florida has not granted clemency to a death row inmate since 1983.
READ: Florida Prepares For Historic Execution Of One Of Its Oldest Inmates Tonight
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Florida Supreme Court Rejects Appeal For Inmate Scheduled In Same-Day Double Execution
