QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Duckett's attorney, Mary Wells, told USA TODAY that the stay was "a significant step toward preventing the irreversible harm that will result if the State of Florida executes an innocent man." "DNA testing ... has the potential to conclusively establish Mr. Duckett’s innocence," she said. "When the outcome of the results is whether a man lives or dies, there is no valid scientific basis for prohibiting a second examiner to analyze the results."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Duckett maintains that he told Teresa that she needed to go home, and that's the last time he saw her. Prosecutors argue that Duckett was a monster in disguise who abused the badge and brutally raped and killed Teresa before dumping her body in a lake. Jurors accepted the state's narrative, convicting Duckett of murder largely based on circumstantial evidence and recommending the death penalty. Now, nearly 40 years later, DNA in the case stands to either save Duckett's life or seal his fate. Duckett, 68, had been set to die by lethal injection at a Florida state prison on March 31. But with less than a week to go, the Florida Supreme Court issued a rare stay of execution pending the results of the DNA testing. And on March 30, the court upheld the stay, effectively stopping any chance that the execution would happen as scheduled."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "After spending nearly 40 years on death row, Duckett's execution was scheduled for March 31 after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant last month. Duckett's attorneys fought to stop the execution so that DNA testing could be conducted on the semen collected from the crime scene. On March 26, the Florida Supreme Court agreed to issue a stay of execution pending results from the testing. The results, which came in on March 27, were inconclusive, possibly because so little of the DNA collected was left to be analyzed. But Duckett's attorneys had argued that a different lab would be more likely to extract usable results. The Florida Supreme Court could have lifted its stay because the initial results were inconclusive. Instead, the court decided to uphold it on March 30 in a 6-1 ruling, stopping Duckett's execution for now."
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STORY: "Killer cop or the wrong man? DNA halts Florida execution. For now," by Amanda Lee Myers, published by USA Today, on March 30, 2026. (Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers cold case investigations and the death penalty for USA TODAY.)
SUB-HEADING: "Ex-officer James Duckett had been set to be executed by lethal injection on March 30 for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl while he was on duty in Florida. But DNA testing has stopped it.?
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AI Overview: Full Summary: "Former Mascotte police officer James Duckett, convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of 11‑year‑old Teresa Mae McAbee, had his scheduled execution on March 31 stayed after the Florida Supreme Court ordered additional DNA testing, leaving his execution on hold pending further results."
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GIST: "When 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee was kidnapped, raped, strangled and drowned in the small Florida city of Mascotte nearly 40 years ago, a surprising suspect emerged: a rookie cop named James Duckett.
The one undisputed fact of the case is that Duckett was on duty on May 11, 1987, when he encountered Teresa at a convenience store. The little girl had walked there to buy a pencil.
Duckett maintains that he told Teresa that she needed to go home, and that's the last time he saw her. Prosecutors argue that Duckett was a monster in disguise who abused the badge and brutally raped and killed Teresa before dumping her body in a lake.
Jurors accepted the state's narrative, convicting Duckett of murder largely based on circumstantial evidence and recommending the death penalty.
Now, nearly 40 years later, DNA in the case stands to either save Duckett's life or seal his fate.
Duckett, 68, had been set to die by lethal injection at a Florida state prison on March 31. But with less than a week to go, the Florida Supreme Court issued a rare stay of execution pending the results of the DNA testing. And on March 30, the court upheld the stay, effectively stopping any chance that the execution would happen as scheduled.
Though the execution is on hold for now, it's not on hold for good.
As Duckett awaits his fate, USA TODAY is looking more deeply into the case, the recent court actions, and why the DNA hasn't been tested until now.
What happened to Teresa Mae McAbee?
On May 11, 1987, the fates of 29-year-old rookie cop James "Jimmy" Duckett and 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee became intertwined.
Teresa had walked to her local Circle K convenience store to buy a pencil around 10 p.m. in Mascotte, Florida, a rural city just west of Orlando that had fewer than 2,000 residents at the time.
Duckett was on patrol for the Mascotte Police Department. The married father of two sons, who had been on the force for seven months, was making his regular rounds and stopped at Circle K, spotting Teresa talking with a 16-year-old boy outside the store, according to court records.
Duckett has always maintained that he talked to Teresa and the teen, telling each to go home. But the boy and his uncle later said that Duckett put Teresa in his patrol car and drove off.
Teresa's mother arrived at the Circle K around 11 p.m., looking for her daughter. The store clerk told her that Teresa may have gone with Duckett, and the mother began searching the area. When she couldn't find Teresa, she contacted the police and later filed a missing persons report with Duckett, the only officer on patrol at the time.
The next morning, less than a mile from the Circle K, a fisherman found Teresa's body in Knight Lake. A medical examiner later found that she had been raped, strangled and was still alive when her attacker drowned her. Bodily fluid, presumably from the killer, was found on her underwear − DNA that was saved.
Duckett became a suspect when a sheriff's investigator, Sgt. Chuck Johnson, who thought the officer was acting nervous at the scene of the body recovery, "was not curious about the death," and told a "rehearsed-sounding story" about his interaction with Teresa and the events of the night before. Duckett was charged with murder five months later.
What happened at James Duckett's trial?
At trial, prosecutors called Duckett a "cold-blooded killer" and said that, unlike him, Teresa didn't have a judge or jury.
"She had a police officer named Duckett pick her up and put her in the car and take her down to Knight Lake, and he sentenced her to be raped, and he sentenced her for threatening to tell on him and taking away his power, his almighty power of the badge," they told jurors, according to court records. "She threatened to tell when she was hurt … so he sentenced her to die. He served as executioner.”
Among the state's evidence: a pubic hair found on Teresa that an FBI analyst said was consistent with Duckett's, Teresa's fingerprints on the hood of Duckett's car, tire tracks at the scene of the murder that police say matched Duckett's patrol car, and a key witness who testified that she saw Duckett drive off with a small person in his patrol car shortly after he spoke with Teresa.
Prosecutors also put three young women on the stand who testified that they were underage when Duckett sexually harassed or abused them.
Duckett's attorneys have been working to poke holes in the trial evidence, saying that Teresa's fingerprints were on the car hood because she sat on it at the Circle K, that a second hair found on the girl's body was inconsistent with Duckett's, and that Duckett's tire tracks were at the scene because he drove there after the body was found.
They also argue that the state's key witness agreed to give bogus testimony in exchange for getting out of jail early and that there was no evidence to corroborate the stories of the three young women who testified that Duckett had been inappropriate with them.
Duckett's attorneys also argue that there were far likelier suspects in the case, including the teen Teresa was talking to before she vanished and various men who were boyfriends or friends of her mother's.
"For reasons beyond his control, James Duckett was chosen as the suspect, and other more likely suspects were allowed to walk away," his attorneys argue in court records. "Rather than find the real perpetrator, the state chose to proceed with a circumstantial evidence case against Mr. Duckett."
Just before he was sentenced to death, Duckett pleaded with the judge in the case to spare his life.
"I did not do this," he said, according to court records. "When the person who did this repeats it, I want to see the face of the person telling the victim's mother, father, sister, or brother, 'I am sorry. We thought we had the right one before.' "
An execution scheduled, then stopped
After spending nearly 40 years on death row, Duckett's execution was scheduled for March 31 after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant last month.
Duckett's attorneys fought to stop the execution so that DNA testing could be conducted on the semen collected from the crime scene. On March 26, the Florida Supreme Court agreed to issue a stay of execution pending results from the testing.
The results, which came in on March 27, were inconclusive, possibly because so little of the DNA collected was left to be analyzed. But Duckett's attorneys had argued that a different lab would be more likely to extract usable results.
The Florida Supreme Court could have lifted its stay because the initial results were inconclusive. Instead, the court decided to uphold it on March 30 in a 6-1 ruling, stopping Duckett's execution for now.
Duckett's attorney, Mary Wells, told USA TODAY that the stay was "a significant step toward preventing the irreversible harm that will result if the State of Florida executes an innocent man."
"DNA testing ... has the potential to conclusively establish Mr. Duckett’s innocence," she said. "When the outcome of the results is whether a man lives or dies, there is no valid scientific basis for prohibiting a second examiner to analyze the results."
The state's Attorney General's Office had argued in court that the stay should be lifted because the DNA results were inconclusive and that Duckett sought DNA testing far too late.
"Duckett waited until after a warrant was signed to seek DNA testing for a murder he committed over 38 years ago, where he knew about the [DNA] slide at least since the relinquishment in 2003," they wrote. "But he did not seek DNA testing as soon as the science was sufficiently advanced. A truly innocent man would have sought ... DNA testing as soon as it was available."
What happens now?
In its order upholding the execution stay, the Florida Supreme Court ordered Lake County Circuit Judge Brian Welke to provide the higher court with a status report by the end of the day on April 2.
Welke is expected to decide whether there should be further testing of the DNA. Welke is the judge who initially granted Duckett's request to test the DNA.
In his dissenting opinion to uphold the stay, Florida Supreme Court Justice Adam Tanenbaum wrote that Duckett's DNA fight amounts to "a Hail Mary pass" and that, given the inconclusive test results, there is "nothing further for [Welke] to do at this point."
"Indeed, as has been the case for decades, there is no exonerating evidence at all to justify any further delay in the defendant’s execution, which has been a long time coming," Tanenbaum wrote. "Justice for the victim and her family has been delayed far too long. The defendant’s time is up."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/03/30/james-duckett-florida-execution-dna-testing-teresa-mcabee/89393376007/PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
