By Frank Stanfield
Florida Supreme Court Clears Way for James Duckett Execution
The Florida Supreme Court has vacated the stay of execution for James Duckett, the rookie Mascotte police officer convicted of raping and killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987.
Now, it’s up to Gov. Ron DeSantis to order a new death warrant, but the 68-year-old convicted killer’s lawyer is still fighting for his life.
Duckett has always claimed he is innocent in the death of Teresa Mae McAbee.
She had been strangled. Her body was discovered floating in a lake near the last place she was seen alive on May 11, 1987 — a convenience store where she was seen getting into Duckett’s patrol car, before getting out and walking around the corner. He had confronted her for being out after curfew. She went to the store to buy a pencil for homework.
The case has been controversial for years. Defense attorneys criticized an FBI hair analyst, claiming that he had misrepresented evidence in another case. Then, there was a witness who testified, then recanted her testimony about seeing the girl getting into the patrol car.
The trial judge allowed other women to testify about Duckett making sexual advances against them, though they were adults and under different circumstances.
Evidence technicians, however, found her fingerprints mixed with Duckett’s on the hood of the car. He denied ever seeing her sit on the hood.
But the biggest issue has been the examination of genetic evidence.
There was a sperm sample on the girl’s underwear.
The state crime lab determined that the samples had deteriorated, the sample was too small and any attempt to test the sample would destroy it.
The governor signed the death warrant on Feb. 27, with execution set for March 31.
In a flurry of appeals, however, the Florida Supreme Court allowed Duckett’s team to have samples tested under a different kind of DNA testing by an outside lab.
The results were inconclusive.
Now, defense attorney Mary Elizabeth Wells is seeking more testing by another lab, an evidentiary hearing so that an expert can interpret the results, and that the state issue another stay of execution.
So far, at least, Circuit Judge Brian Welke has not scheduled a hearing, or given notice that he will not.
DeSantis could sign another death warrant as soon as the end of the week.
Frank Stanfield has been a journalist for more than 40 years, including as an editor and reporter for the Daily Commercial, Orlando Sentinel and Ocala Star-Banner. He has written three books, “Unbroken: The Dorothy Lewis Story,” “Vampires, Gators and Wackos, A Florida Newspaperman’s Story,” and “Cold Blooded, A True Crime Story of a Murderous Teenage Cult.” He has appeared on numerous national and international broadcasts, including Discovery ID, Oxygen and Court TV. He maintains a blog at frankestanfield.com. Stanfield graduated with a political science degree from the University of North Florida and a master’s in journalism at the University of Georgia.
