JUDGE REJECTS FORMER LAKE COP’S REQUEST FOR DNA HEARING IN DEATH ROW CASE

A Lake County judge on Monday rejected a request by death row inmate James Duckett to hold a court hearing to review the procedures and results of recent DNA testing in the decades-long case of an 11-year-old Mascotte girl who was brutally raped and murdered.

Duckett, then a town police officer, was convicted of the fifth grader’s murder in 1988 but has always claimed he was innocent.

Though Duckett can appeal to federal courts, the Lake judge’s denial of the evidentiary hearing request is a significant setback in the 68-year-old inmate’s efforts to prove his innocence.

Duckett’s attorneys this spring said an evidentiary hearing was needed after DNA tests conducted in March — ones not available at the time of their client’s arrest decades ago — and the results reviewed by a second lab last month showed inconclusive results as to whether Duckett’s DNA was present. The tests were run on semen and hair samples found in the girl’s underwear.

But Lake Circuit Court Judge Brian Welke said in his order that holding a hearing “regarding the methods and procedures used to obtain DNA results” would not present any new evidence on Duckett’s guilt or innocence.

Duckett “has not cited, nor has the Court located, any case law which requires or even permits a trial court to hold an evidentiary hearing purely to develop evidence for a future claim,” Welke wrote in his order.

Meanwhile, state attorneys last Wednesday asked the Florida Supreme Court to lift the stay of Duckett’s execution the higher court imposed in March to allow for the completion of the DNA testing.

If the Florida Supreme Court lifts its stay of execution now that Welke has ruled against an evidentiary hearing, it’s likely that Duckett’s execution will move forward, though his attorneys will have a chance to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Duckett’s death warrant on Feb. 27, and his execution was scheduled for March 31. But that death warrant has since expired, and DeSantis would have to sign a new warrant for Duckett’s execution, if the Florida Supreme Court lifts its stay.

Unless Duckett’s legal team present new evidence, it’s unlikely the state’s top court would issue any new stays of execution. Duckett’s remaining options are filing appeals in the federal court system, his lead defense attorney, Mary Elizabeth Wells, said in a recent court document. “Without permitting Mr. Duckett a full hearing on his claims before the court, Mr. Duckett will be required to brief and file any litigation in the United States Supreme Court and federal district court without benefit of the discovery results which may provide critical information relevant to the very claims he is litigating,” Wells said in a motion filed Thursday, arguing against lifting the stay of execution.

On March 6, Welke granted Duckett’s motion for DNA testing of a dried vaginal swab that had been stored at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and ordered the procedure performed by DNA Labs International or DLI.

The testing was completed on March 27, but no statistical analysis of the test results were provided because neither Florida Department of Law Enforcement nor DLI had the technology for that analysis.

In May, Welke ordered DLI to give the DNA testing data to Duckett’s attorneys. They in turn sent it to Dr. David Mittleman of Othram Inc., a private lab, to conduct the analysis of the testing data.

But in his report, Mittleman said “the available DNA evidence does not permit me to form an opinion, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, that James Duckett either is or is not a contributor to the evidentiary DNA mixture.”

Last week, Duckett’s attorneys said that an evidentiary hearing was needed to understand that DNA analysis.

But state attorneys called the request for an evidentiary hearing “unjustified” and said that the girl’s family deserves justice.

“Duckett’s request for an evidentiary hearing is nothing but a fishing expedition for information to support a claim that has not even been raised,” said Naomi Nichols, senior assistant state attorney general, in her motion to the Florida Supreme Court, requesting it lift the stay of execution.

She and other state attorneys argued that Duckett’s attorneys wanted to use the evidentiary hearing as a way to bring up new evidence — or claims — for future court proceedings.

Duckett was convicted and sentenced to death row in June 1988 for raping, strangling and drowning Teresa McAbee while he was a Mascotte Police officer. The girl’s body was found dumped by the side of a lake in Mascotte.

Duckett’s attorneys said the former officer has “consistently professed his innocence” in the girl’s murder.

He is now just asking for a “meaningful opportunity to challenge, confront, explain or rebut that evidence,” his attorney Mary Elizabeth Wells said in a motion to the state Supreme Court on Thursday arguing against lifting the stay of execution.

“Mr. Duckett will be executed by the State of Florida without ever being provided the opportunity to fully litigate the relevant issues.”

She called it “shocking to the conscience” and “contrary to the contemporary standards of decency,” in not holding an evidentiary hearing and lifting the stay of execution.