Select by gender or name

1987 Murder of Teresa McAbee

James Aren Duckett was working for the Mascotte Police Department on the night of May 11th, 1987, between 10 and 10:30 pm, when he encountered 11-year-old Teresa McAbee and a 16-year-old boy talking near a convenience store dumpster.

Duckett went into the store and asked the clerk how old Teresa was. The clerk said she was between 10 and 13, so Duckett went and talked to Teresa and the boy.

The boy soon returned to a nearby laundromat where he was washing clothes. His uncle eventually showed up at the laundromat, and they both saw Teresa getting in the passenger side of Duckett’s patrol car.

Teresa was found dead in a body of water a mile away from the store where she was last seen. She had been violated, strangled, and drowned.

Duckett became a suspect. Tire tracks from his police car were at the scene, and the victim’s prints were on the hood of his car.

Duckett was arrested months later, and at trial, he was convicted and sentenced to death.

2026 Execution Scheduling and delay

According to WUSF, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant in early March, and his execution was scheduled for March 31st, 2026.

Days later, Duckkett’s attorneys filed a motion for post-conviction DNA testing on the victim’s underwear. They claimed this test would prove another person was behind the murder.

According to WUSF, the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution on March 26th, 2026, meaning Duckett’s March 31st execution was called off. The court did this so they could await the DNA test results. The court told the state they needed to provide a status for the DNA testing the next day.

The next day, on March 27th, 2026, ClickOrlando reported that the DNA results were inconclusive.

The Florida attorney general, James Uthmeier, wanted the stay of execution lifted since the DNA didn’t exonerate Duckett so that he could be executed on March 31st, but that did not happen. Eventually, it was rescheduled for July 28th, 2026

James Aren Duckett Execution

According to ABC7Chicago, He was executed on July 28th, 2026. He made no final statement and was pronounced dead at 1:19 pm. Hours later, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was executed.

The first time since Arkansas in 2017 that a state executed two people in one day.