Barring a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone will become the oldest person ever executed in Florida, according to available records. He is scheduled to die on July 28, about a month before his 81st birthday.
This will mark the third time that record has been broken in a little more than a month. Two weeks ago, Dennis Sochor, 74, was put to death for the 1981 murder of 18-year-old Patricia Gifford. Two weeks before that, the state executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer for brutally beating and stabbing his wife, Karen Spencer, in front of her teenage son in 1992.
Occhicone, convicted of the 1986 murder of his ex-fiancée's parents, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection six hours after the planned
execution of another man, former Lake County police officer James Duckett, convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee. If both executions go as planned, it would be the first multiple execution in Florida since 1964.
Both an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court and a joint request from both men for an emergency stay of execution have been denied.
Occhicone is now waiting for word from the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has asked for a stay and a writ of certiorari over allegations that the scheduled double execution increases the chances for a botched executionand that Florida's court denied his request for documentation "regarding the evidence of the maladministration of the current lethal injection protocols."
Occhicone’s attorneys have also argued that several of his age-related problems, such as kidney and prostate conditions, could make his execution especially painful, which would create unconstitutionally "cruel and unusual punishment."
Questions have arisen about the state's lethal injection execution protocols after execution logs were released last year that seem to show cases where insufficient or even different chemicals were used, and autopsy records for 33 executed inmates that showed each one suffered flash pulmonary edema, which causes a feeling like drowning.
When is Dominick Occhicone scheduled to be executed?
Occhicone's death by lethal injection is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 28, at Florida State Prison in Raiford.
The execution is planned to begin six hours after Duckett's execution.
Will Dominick Occhicone be the oldest person Florida has ever executed?
Occhicone, born Aug. 29, 1945, will become the oldest person ever put to death in Florida, breaking the records recently set by Spencer and Sochor, both 74. He suffers from heart trouble, poor kidney function, an enlarged prostate, arthritis, and degenerative disc disease, according to his attorneys.
Occhicone's attorneys also argued in a recent Florida Supreme Court filing that executing such a "sickly" man is unconstitutional and amounts to "manifest injustice which shocks the conscience."
"(It) no longer serves any retributive value based on his advanced age and would serve only the purpose of vengeance, offending the dignity of our society," they said.
The previous record was set in 1951, when 72-year-old Charlie R. Gifford was executed barely a year after murdering Florida legislator Charles Schuh.
There are no records of an older person executed in Florida before that, possibly due to shorter average life spans. There may have been; many records before 1927 don't include ages or birthdates. There were also much shorter periods between convictions and executions in the days before Florida developed a prison system.
Occhicone won't break the country's record, but he'll be the second-oldest executed in the U.S. In 2018, Alabama executed 83-year-old Walter Moody, convicted of a deadly 1989 serial bombing spree.
Nor is he the oldest on Florida's Death Row. That would be Daniel Burns, 81, convicted in 1988 for the shooting death of Florida Highway Patrol trooper Jeffrey Dale Young. But he's only the oldest by a few months.
Other elderly condemned inmates born the same year (1945) include James Rose, Harry Phillips, William Ziegler, Henry Sireci, and Dominick Occhione.
Who is Dominick Occhicone?
Dominick Anthony Occhicone dated Anita Gerrety for three years. They lived together with her two children and his 5-year-old son for about six months and planned to marry in 1985. Two months before the wedding, Gerrety ended the engagement, citing his "hot temper," violent behavior, and verbal and physical abuse toward her and the children, according to court records.
Gerrety testified that Occhicone continued to send flowers and call her. In May 1986, Gerrety told him she had an abortion but would not identify the father. She also said she had met someone else, she testified.
He continued to knock on her door to talk, and began making increasingly graphic threats against Gerrety and her family while drinking heavily at a local bar, according to bar staff. He blamed her parents, Raymond and Martha Artzner, for the breakup and said he would kill them first so she could watch.
Around 3 a.m. on June 10, Occhicone went to the Artzners' Pasco County home to rekindle the relationship, court records show. He left when Gerrety threatened to call the sheriff but returned an hour later. Her father tried to call, but the phone was dead. Prosecutors said the phone wires had been ripped from the junction box.
Raymond Artzner confronted Occhicone outside with a broomstick. After telling him to "get the hell out of here," Occhicone shot Artzner in the face, Gerrety testified. Occhicone then broke through a locked door and chased her through the house. She escaped outside with her daughter and heard shots behind her.
Martha Artzner was later found dead with four bullet wounds, three in her chest. Raymond Artzner identified Occhicone as the shooter before dying at a hospital, prosecutors said.
Charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Occhicone received a life sentence for Raymond Artzner's death and a death sentence for killing Martha Artzner. The jury voted 7-5 to recommend death in September 1987, a lower threshold than exists anywhere in the U.S. today.
The Florida Supreme Court reaffirmed the death sentence in 1990, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal in 1991. Occhicone has appealed, unsuccessfully, on multiple occasions since.
Occhicone awaiting Supreme Court decision hours before execution
Occhicone did not dispute the evidence but argued the killings were not premeditated. His defense cited long-term alcohol abuse, depression and emotional distress from the breakup.
Convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, Occhicone received life in prison for Raymond Artzner's death and a death sentence for killing Martha Artzner. The jury recommended death by a 7-5 vote in September 1987.
The Florida Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in 1990, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal in 1991. He has unsuccessfully appealed multiple times since.
Occhicone's appeal and request for a stay before the Supreme Court call for a pause in his execution and any others in Florida due to a reported shortage of etomidate, saying that drugs "intended to save the life of the innocent and vulnerable" should not be "hoarded" for executions. It also brought up the request for Department of Corrections documents denied in his last appeal.
Occhicone's attorneys noted that nine previous inmate appeals based on Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, based on evidence that the Department of Corrections has not been following its own lethal injection protocol properly, were all rejected by the Florida Supreme Court.
"Only this Honorable Court has the power and authority to hold Florida to address Florida’s actions," the appeal said.
C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida's service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida set to execute 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone, schedule
