{"id":207881,"date":"2026-03-27T04:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207881\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:33:07","slug":"florida-supreme-court-halts-the-execution-of-police-officer-convicted-of-raping-and-murdering-a-girl-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207881\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Supreme Court halts the execution of police officer convicted of raping and murdering a girl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">STARKE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The execution of a former Florida police officer convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl was temporarily halted Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The court issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/acis-api.flcourts.gov\/courts\/68f021c4-6a44-4735-9a76-5360b2e8af13\/cms\/case\/1f37ec5c-5eef-48a0-ba97-5e1ea34b05d4\/docketentrydocuments\/6e129321-05ec-40cd-9a02-9af20611c1b6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stay in execution<\/a> for 68-year-old James Aren Duckett, who was scheduled to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/florida-execution-billy-leon-kearse-desantis-3eef0267677a5ae99313aaeed8a40654\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">receive a three-drug injection Tuesday<\/a> at Florida State Prison near Starke. Duckett was sentenced to death in 1988 after being convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As part of his appeals process, Duckett had sought DNA testing that he argued could exonerate him. A circuit court granted that request, and the testing is still pending. The Florida Supreme Court also ordered the state to address the status of the DNA testing by 5 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If the stay isn\u2019t lifted by Tuesday, it\u2019s not clear when the execution would take place, if at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/florida-execution-walls-home-invasion-ecac6cccf5315c4dd5176e4c29b14447\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">record 19 executions last year<\/a>, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to court records, Duckett had worked as a police officer in Mascotte, a small city west of Orlando. He was on patrol the night of May 11, 1987, when 11-year-old Teresa McAbee disappeared. She was last seen getting into Duckett\u2019s patrol car at a convenience store.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">McAbee\u2019s body was found in a lake the next morning less than a mile away from the store, officials said. A medical examiner determined she was sexually assaulted and then drowned. Blood and hair linked her to Duckett. Distinct tire tracks found at the lake matched the tires on Mascotte patrol cars. Duckett and McAbee\u2019s fingerprints were found on the hood of Duckett\u2019s car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Three teen girls testified at trial that Duckett had previously given rides to each of them and had made sexual advances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A total of <a href=\"https:\/\/deathpenaltyinfo.org\/executions\/2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">47 people<\/a> were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STARKE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The execution of a former Florida police officer convicted of raping and murdering an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[95218,2195,17867,95219,1738,95217,95216,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-207881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-11-year-old-girl","tag-execution","tag-florida-supreme-court","tag-jame-aren-duckett","tag-police-officer","tag-rape-and-murder-charges","tag-stay-in-execution","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}