The Supreme Court of Florida on Friday affirmed lower court rulings denying death row inmate James Aren Duckett’s latest appeals and request for DNA testing, clearing the way for his execution scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, at 12:00 p.m.
Background
Duckett, who was convicted almost 40 years ago of the sexual battery and first-degree murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee, had filed his sixth successive motion for postconviction relief and a second post-warrant motion seeking DNA testing on multiple items.
The court ruled that Duckett’s motion for additional DNA testing on items including clothing, swabs, and fingernail scrapings was procedurally barred because he knew about the evidence when filing a prior motion in March 2026. The justices also noted that 2003 examinations revealed the items contained no testable genetic material due to degradation or absence of DNA.
Additionally, the justices rejected Duckett’s argument that the state violated his due process rights by sending a semen sample taken from the victim’s underwear to a Florida laboratory using the ForenSeq Kintelligence Kit, which consumed the remaining sample without yielding exculpatory results, rather than a Texas laboratory using Whole Genome Sequencing.
“The total consumption of the sample without conclusive results was an unfortunate byproduct of the testing that Duckett himself requested,” the majority opinion stated, adding that Duckett failed to show bad faith by the state.
The court denied Duckett’s motion for a stay of execution and stated no motion for rehearing would be considered.
Reaction
Chief Justice Couriel and Justices Muñiz, Grosshans, Francis, and Sasso concurred with the majority opinion.
Justice Labarga concurred in a separate opinion, taking issue with a partial dissent that called for sanctions against defense attorneys.
Justice Tanenbaum concurred in part and dissented in part, writing that the latest motion was “both time-barred and frivolous, undoubtedly filed only for the purpose of unreasonably delaying his execution further.”
Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.
