TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, DNA testing results in the case of James Duckett failed to produce a conclusive result. Despite this, the State of Florida has filed a request to lift the stay of execution that the Florida Supreme Court issued yesterday.
This outcome alone should stop Mr. Duckett’s Tuesday execution for the 1986 murder of Teresa McAbee. Without further testing, the State cannot assure the public that they are executing the right man.
The Deputy Director of Forensic Science at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) asserted that additional expert evaluation of the male-specific DNA data derived from the sample may still be possible, meaning scientific inquiry is not yet complete. As Mr. Duckett’s most recent pleading notes, FDLE recommended further testing at the very lab Mr. Duckett initially requested three weeks ago.
Instead of honoring their own crime lab’s request, the State is asking to move forward with the execution as scheduled.
Mr. Duckett’s conviction was based on entirely circumstantial evidence, including testimony that has since been recanted and forensic analysis that has been discredited. Mr. Duckett has maintained his innocence for nearly 40 years. No physical evidence ever conclusively proved his guilt. The state’s case depended heavily on a single pregnant teenage witness who later said her testimony was false and the product of pressure from investigators, who threatened to take away her child if she refused to cooperate. It also relied on microscopic hair comparison evidence that federal authorities later found to be scientifically unsound and overstated in court, and a non-unanimous jury vote.
“This case has never rested on strong or reliable evidence,” said Grace Hanna, Executive Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “One inconclusive result does not erase the systemic failures that led to this conviction, nor does it justify the continued use of capital punishment in a state that has more death row exonerees than any other.”
“This is exactly why no one piece of evidence should be treated as a final answer in a death penalty case,” Hanna added. “The death penalty is irreversible. There is no reason to prevent further testing that could provide finality in this case, particularly given Florida’s distinction as the state with more death row exonerees than any other.”
For decades, Mr. Duckett faced an impossible choice. In 2003, he was granted DNA testing on this same swab collected from the victim’s underwear. But every expert involved agreed that the technology available at that time would likely consume the entire sample — and might not even produce a usable DNA profile. If that happened, any future opportunity to prove his innocence would be lost forever.
Faced with that risk, Mr. Duckett and his legal team made the decision to wait for science to advance to a point where testing could be conducted without destroying the only evidence that might exonerate him. When the Governor signed his death warrant less than 30 days ago, they were forced to move forward with testing. An execution without absolute certainty of guilt, especially in a state with the highest number of wrongful convictions, should never be permitted.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty calls for Governor DeSantis to withdraw the execution warrant for James Duckett and allow for a thorough reexamination of this case.
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