James Duckett was intended to be the third person put to death in Florida this year. After a stay and inconclusive DNA testing, he is scheduled to become the 11th at noon on July 28, just hours before another man, Dominick Occhicone, becomes the 12th.
Former Mascotte Police Officer Duckett, 68, was charged with the kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee after prosecutors said he abducted her from a convenience store where she had gone to buy a pencil. Her strangled, drowned body was found in a lake the next day. Duckett has maintained his innocence for nearly 40 years.
Days before his scheduled execution in March, the Florida Supreme Court issued a stay pending further DNA testing, but after the results were inconclusive, his new appeal was denied, and Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a new death warrant.
He awaits notice from the U.S. Supreme Court for his last appeal, which accused Florida’s court of deliberately sending the semen sample from the victim’s underwear to a Florida lab to expedite it, rather than another lab with the ability to perform the whole genome sequencing required to test a sample from four decades ago. The sample was used up in the test, his attorneys said, and communication between Duckett’s team and the lab was blocked.
The Florida Supreme Court denied his request to have more items tested, saying the time limit had passed.
Duckett and Occhicone, who was convicted of the 1986 murder of his ex-fiancée’s parents, will be the first double execution scheduled in Florida for 62 years. Both men filed a joint emergency motion for a stay of execution with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, stating that Florida’s decision to execute two men six hours apart makes it more likely one or both men will undergo “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“By combining Mr. Duckett’s execution day with Mr. Occhionne’s, the risk of a botched execution is exponentially increased due to factors including the impact of the prison and execution teams not being prepared to conduct two executions on the same day and the risk of errors with the lethal injection drugs,” the July 23 motion read.
That request was denied on July 26.
When is James Duckett scheduled to be executed in Florida?
Florida is set to execute Duckett by lethal injection on Tuesday, July 28, starting at noon ET at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, about 40 miles west of Jacksonville.
Occhicone is scheduled to die starting at 6 p.m. the same day.
Who is James Duckett?
James Aren Duckett, then 29 years old, was patrolling alone in Mascotte in Lake County on the evening of May 11, 1987, when prosecutors said he approached McAbee coming out of a convenience store with a 16-year-old Mexican boy.
Duckett said he brought her to his patrol car and told her to go home. Witnesses, including the boy and his uncle, said Duckett drove off with her.
When she didn’t return home, her mother contacted police, and Duckett filed a missing persons report for her.
A fisherman found McAbee’s body the next day near the shore of Knight Lake, less than a mile from the store. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled, and then drowned, investigators said.
Investigators found tire tracks at the scene distinct to the two Mascott police cars, Duckett’s and McAbee’s palm prints on the hood of the patrol car, and a pubic hair in McAbee’s underwear that an FBI special agent matched to Duckett. Duckett denied driving to the lake or abducting the girl. His attorneys pointed out there was no mud or blood on or in his car, and he was witnessed after midnight to be neat and clean.
During the case, the state presented testimony from three other young women who allegedly had sexual encounters with Duckett within five months of McAbee’s death. He reportedly made sexual advances toward two of them and engaged in sexual activity with the third, all while he was on duty.
Duckett was found guilty of first-degree murder and sexual battery and was sentenced to death. He was also sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for the sexual battery charge.
During his incarceration, questions arose over the eyewitness accounts, the pubic hair analysis, and other factors. Multiple appeals to the Florida Supreme Court were denied.
Did James Duckett kill other girls?
Police investigations have suggested that Duckett may have been involved with the murders of two other people:
Investigations continued, but no charges were ever filed.
What happened to Duckett’s grandson?
In 2006, Duckett’s ex-daughter-in-law, Melinda Duckett, 21, claimed that her then-2-year-old son, Trenton, was snatched from his bedroom window in Leesburg. A massive missing child investigation was launched, but police said they considered the mother the prime suspect, The Seattle Times reported.
Both Melinda Duckett and her ex-husband Joshua Duckett appeared on CNN’s “Nancy Grace,” where Grace interrogated her over her son’s disappearance and accused her of hiding something. The day after the show’s taping, Melinda Duckett left a note describing her “ridicule and criticism” and took her own life. CNN ran the segment anyway.
In 2010, her family settled with CNN, and the media giant established a $200,000 trust account to help find Trenton.
He remains missing.
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 The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Who is James Duckett? Key facts before Florida execution
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida | USA TODAY Network
