Florida Supreme Court keeps James Duckett’s execution on hold
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The execution of a former police officer convicted of murdering and raping a teenage girl nearly 40 years ago will be postponed after the state Supreme Court on Monday denied the state’s request for a stay of execution, according to court documents.
Former Mascotte police officer James Duckett, accused of preying on 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987, was scheduled to be executed Tuesday.
The request comes after DNA testing on biological material from the victim’s underwear, which the defense claimed could prove Duckett’s innocence, came up inconclusive Friday, according to court documents.
Because the results failed to exonerate Duckett, Florida’s attorney general immediately lifted the stay, calling on the state Supreme Court to allow the execution to proceed as planned.
VIRGINIA PROSECUTOR’S RECORDS ON VIOLENT CRIMINALS REVIEWED AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH MATERIAL MURDER
Mugshot of James Dockett, who was convicted of murdering and raping a teenage girl in 1987. (Florida Department of Corrections)
But the high court rejected the request on Monday; Six of the seven justices favored a stay of execution while giving the lower court time to review “consecutive allegations” tied to DNA evidence and request a status update on outstanding matters by Thursday, April 2.
The case against Duckett, who spent nearly 40 years on death row in Florida, has faced intense scrutiny due to his role as a former police officer and his long-standing claims of innocence.
DEM SENATOR WARNED DEPORTED VIRGINA WOMAN MADE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MURDERER MAY ‘evade responsibility’
A general view of the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee, Florida, on Monday, January 12, 2026. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
On May 11, 1987, Mascotte police officer James Duckett, then 29, was seen questioning a teenage girl at a convenience store near Orlando and eventually put her in his patrol car, claiming she was past curfew.
It was reported that the 11-year-old boy went to the market that night but could not return home. based on to Fox 35 Orlando. Her body was found the next morning in Knight Lake, less than a mile from the store, and it was reported that she had been sexually assaulted, strangled and strangled.
Duckett was determined to be the last person to see him.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks at a press conference at the Orlando Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
An FBI expert testified at the time that pubic hair found at the scene matched Duckett’s, but hair microscopy has since been discredited as an unreliable forensic method.
Duckett and Teresa’s fingerprints were reportedly found on the hood of the patrol car, and tire tracks in the lake matched the Mascotte police department’s “mud and snow” tires.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Additionally, Duckett’s radio recordings showed a mysterious gap of more than an hour on the night of the murder.
Duckett represents one of the few former law enforcement officers sentenced to death penalty. The case now hinges on whether forensic evidence from the 1980s, such as hair matching, is sufficient to confirm the death penalty when modern DNA testing does not provide a definitive answer.
