Florida Supreme Court Keeps Ex-Cop’s Execution on Hold After Inconclusive DNA Test
The Florida Supreme Court on Monday denied the state’s request to lift a stay of execution for former Mascotte police officer James Duckett, keeping his execution on hold after DNA testing produced inconclusive results, court documents show.
Duckett was scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1987 murder and sexual assault of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee, court records show. Defense lawyers had sought more time after advances in DNA testing prompted new analysis of biological material from the victim’s underwear, the documents said.
The new testing, completed Friday, was inconclusive, the court filings said. Because the results did not definitively exonerate Duckett, Florida’s attorney general asked the high court to lift the stay and allow the execution to proceed, according to court documents.
The court, however, with six of the seven justices voting to keep the stay, gave the lower court time to review “successive claims” tied to the DNA evidence and ordered status updates on any outstanding issues by April 2, the court papers said.
The case against Duckett — who has been on Florida’s death row nearly 40 years — centers on whether 1980s-era forensic evidence is sufficient when modern DNA testing is inconclusive. Authorities said Duckett was seen questioning the girl outside a convenience store on May 11, 1987, before placing her in his patrol car; her body was found the next morning. An FBI expert at the time testified that a pubic hair found at the scene matched Duckett, a method forensic scientists now consider unreliable, and court records show other evidence including fingerprints and tire-track comparisons were cited at trial.
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