{"id":340757,"date":"2026-07-15T11:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340757\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:08:08","slug":"florida-sets-execution-date-for-convicted-killer-james-duckett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340757\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida sets execution date for convicted killer James Duckett"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly four decades after he was convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old, Gov. Ron DeSantis has set a new execution date for former Mascotte police officer James Duckett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DeSantis signed a letter Monday designating July 28 as the date of execution at Florida State Prison. The move came after the Florida Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution on July 8<\/a>, following inconclusive DNA test results that failed to exonerate Duckett.<\/p>\n

Duckett was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery on May 10, 1988, and sentenced to death on June 30, 1988. Teresa McAbee\u2019s body was found in a lake near a convenience store where she was last seen getting into Duckett\u2019s patrol car. Her fingerprints were found on the hood of the vehicle, according to court records.<\/p>\n

DeSantis first signed a death warrant for Duckett on Feb. 27. The execution was paused after Duckett\u2019s attorneys filed for DNA testing, claiming it would prove his innocence. <\/p>\n

Michael Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, said at the time that testing was warranted given the stakes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they can test this now is really important. They should do so, with a person\u2019s life at stake,\u201d Sheedy said.<\/p>\n

Duckett will be one of two men executed July 28. Dominick Occhiocone is also scheduled to die that day for the 1986 murders of his former fianc\u00e9e\u2019s parents. <\/p>\n

Duckett would be the 11th person executed in Florida this year.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly four decades after he was convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old, Gov. Ron DeSantis has set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[265,408,2195,28,30,29,95312,2174],"class_list":["post-340757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime","tag-death-penalty","tag-execution","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-duckett","tag-lake-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340757","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=340757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}