WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: (Applicable wherever a state resists DNA testing): "Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate."...Says Gamso: "So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?"
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STORY: "Former Lake cop, James Duckett, executed for rape, drowning of 11-year-old,by Reporters Martin E. Comas and Rylan Digiacomo-Rapp, published by The Orlando Sentinel. on July 28, 2026. (Martin E. Comas covers Seminole County and its seven cities for the Orlando Sentinel. Martin is a University of Central Florida graduate with degrees in journalism and business administration. He is fluent in Spanish.)PHOTO CAPTION: "James Aren Duckett, a former police officer convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in 1987, was put to death at Florida State Prison on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. "
GIST: "James Aren Duckett, who long maintained his innocence in the horrific rape and drowning of an 11-year-old Lake County girl nearly four decades ago, was executed Tuesday afternoon.
While restrained onto a gurney at Florida State Prison in Raiford — his hands and fingers secured to the side — Duckett declined to say any final words before he was put to death at 1:19 p.m., according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
He was then injected with a three-drug cocktail that put the 68-year-old inmate to sleep, paralyzed him and stopped his heart.
It was the first of two executions scheduled on the same day. Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is slated to be put to death at 6 p.m., becoming the oldest prisoner executed in modern Florida history. Occhicone was convicted of the 1986 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in Pasco County.
If Occhicone was put to death as planned, it would be the first time since 1964 that Florida executed two inmates on the same day.
Hours before his execution, Duckett’s team of lawyers filed last-minute appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution to allow several items of clothing that young Teresa McAbee was wearing on the night of her death in May 1987 be tested for DNA, along with vaginal swabs and scrapings from under her fingernails. They’d unsuccessfully appealed to lower courts previously.
Justice Clarence Thomas denied the appeals without comment just moments before Duckett’s death. Duckett’s execution, scheduled for noon, was delayed by more than an hour as prison officials awaited word from the nation’s top court.
A federal judge in Jacksonville on Monday also denied requests by Duckett’s legal team to halt the execution. The Florida Supreme Court refused to issue a stay in Duckett’s execution last week.""
GIST: "James Aren Duckett, who long maintained his innocence in the horrific rape and drowning of an 11-year-old Lake County girl nearly four decades ago, was executed Tuesday afternoon.
While restrained onto a gurney at Florida State Prison in Raiford — his hands and fingers secured to the side — Duckett declined to say any final words before he was put to death at 1:19 p.m., according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
He was then injected with a three-drug cocktail that put the 68-year-old inmate to sleep, paralyzed him and stopped his heart.
It was the first of two executions scheduled on the same day. Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is slated to be put to death at 6 p.m., becoming the oldest prisoner executed in modern Florida history. Occhicone was convicted of the 1986 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in Pasco County.
If Occhicone was put to death as planned, it would be the first time since 1964 that Florida executed two inmates on the same day.
Hours before his execution, Duckett’s team of lawyers filed last-minute appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution to allow several items of clothing that young Teresa McAbee was wearing on the night of her death in May 1987 be tested for DNA, along with vaginal swabs and scrapings from under her fingernails. They’d unsuccessfully appealed to lower courts previously.
Justice Clarence Thomas denied the appeals without comment just moments before Duckett’s death. Duckett’s execution, scheduled for noon, was delayed by more than an hour as prison officials awaited word from the nation’s top court.
A federal judge in Jacksonville on Monday also denied requests by Duckett’s legal team to halt the execution. The Florida Supreme Court refused to issue a stay in Duckett’s execution last week.""
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;
