A convicted killer who has spent nearly four decades on Florida's death row is making a last-ditch bid to avoid execution, citing serious health problems. 

Dominick Occhicone, 80, was sentenced to death in 1987 for murdering his ex-fiancée’s parents, Raymond and Martha Artzner. He shot them at their home months after their daughter called off the engagement.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant late last month, setting his execution date for July 28 - just one month before his 81st birthday - meaning he is set to be the oldest person executed in Florida.

His legal team, led by attorney Ali Shakoor, filed a motion in Pasco County on Monday attempting to stop his execution, arguing that his advanced age and poor health should spare him, according to the Orlando Sentinel. 

'The execution of Occhicone 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,' court documents stated.

His attorneys argued that, over the past 39 years, Occhicone has rarely slept more than three hours at a time each night and now suffers from poor vision and hearing loss, requiring the use of a hearing aid. 

According to the filing, he has declining renal function, kidney disease and cysts on one of his kidneys. His attorneys also claimed that their client has a blocked artery and suffers from irregular heart rhythms. 

'Like many older men, Occhicone suffers from prostate issues and incontinence. He has trouble walking,' the court documents read.

Attorneys said that prison guards must assist him with showering and navigating the stairs as his mobility has declined.

'The execution of an octogenarian is a manifestly unjust use of the state’s power,' Shakoor said, according to the court document. 'And this court can and should correct it.'

DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has ordered the executions of 31 inmates over the past two years. Florida carried out a nation-leading 19 executions last year alone.

Occhicone’s is the 12th death warrant DeSantis has signed this year.

His defense argued that carrying out executions places a significant mental burden on prison staff, urging the judge to impose a six-month moratorium on all state executions.   

Attorneys asked that experts use the temporary pause to examine the psychological effects executions have on the prison staff responsible for carrying them out. 

'The executions have taken a toll on the psyche of correctional staff and are causing moral injury to the state,' they wrote in their motion.

'Occhicone’s case presents the occasion for a pause to assess the damage which has been done and survey the mental health of the correctional staff.'

His attorneys said their elderly client is prepared to testify about the relationships he has formed with prison staff over the years, including one with Florida State Prison Warden Randall Polk.

They argued that staff, including Polk, should not have to experience 'the trauma of caring for and preparing a senior citizen to die,' according to the court documents.

Defense lawyers said prison staff have come to know Occhicone and his 'humanity and humor,' claiming that he may remind them of their own elderly loved ones. 

According to the motion, his execution is 'so fundamentally unfair, so wrong, it should shock the conscience,' of residents across the state. 

State attorneys had not yet responded to the defense's filing as of Wednesday morning. A hearing in Occhicone's case was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon before Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa. 

Occhicone was sentenced to death in 1987 after fatally shooting his ex-fiancée’s parents, Raymond and Martha Artzner, at their home. 

He began dating Anita Gerrety in 1982, and the couple became engaged in 1985 after living together for about six months. The engagement was called off later that year.

In the early morning hours of June 10, 1986, at around 1.30am, Occhicone headed to the Shooter's Liquor Lounge in Elfers, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Mail.

A bartender testified that he spent about an hour inside the bar, talking about his ex-girlfriend, playing melancholy songs on the jukebox and drinking two vodka cranberry drinks before leaving. 

At around 3am, Occhicone repeatedly knocked on the sliding glass door of his ex's bedroom at her Pasco County home, where she lived with her parents and two children. 

Gerrety testified that she woke up and refused to discuss their relationship, warning she would call the sheriff's office if he did not leave. He complied, but returned just an hour later. 

Court documents stated that he continued pounding on the home before Gerrety's father angrily confronted him in the driveway with a broomstick, demanding he leave. 

Occhicone, described as smelling of alcohol and 'staggering' toward his ex-girlfriend and her father, raised a gun at his face before firing just seconds later. 

Gerrety escaped through the front door with her daughter, though her mother was unable to get out. While running to a neighbor’s house for safety, she heard more gunshots ring out behind her. 

Authorities rushed to the scene, where they discovered her father lying on the ground with a single gunshot wound to the chest. He later died at the hospital.

Her mother was also found dead just inside the door leading from the garage to the kitchen, having suffered four gunshot wounds - three to the chest, including one that struck her heart in what the medical examiner described as a 'rapidly fatal' injury.

During the trial, Gerrety testified that the breakup was caused by Occhicone’s 'hot temper,' describing several instances of verbal and physical abuse directed at her and her children. 

In one instance, he kicked open the bedroom door while holding a knife. After the breakup, Occhicone continued contacting her, sending flowers to her workplace daily and making repeated calls. 

Gerrety testified that, before the double murders, Occhicone showed up at her home and knocked on her bedroom’s sliding glass door at least 20 times in the middle of the night. 

His defense argued that Occhicone lacked the intent to kill, citing his severe alcohol abuse and habit of drinking 10 to 15 vodka cocktails at bars before lunchtime, according to court records.

Court records describe him in 1986 as spending most of his days at bars, where he drank between 10 and 15 vodka cocktails before lunchtime. On the day of the murders, he was said to have drank more than a quart of vodka. 

The jury ultimately voted 7-5 to recommend the death penalty, a decision that would not stand today. Current Florida law requires at least eight jurors to support a death sentence, meaning Occhicone would now be sentenced to life in prison instead. 

In 2025, Florida's governor carried out the most executions in any single year since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.