Gov. DeSantis signs death warrant for former police officer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —

James Aren Duckett, a former police officer convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in 1987, will be executed by lethal injection later this month after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant Friday.

Duckett, 68, is scheduled to be put to death at Florida State Prison on March 31, the fifth death warrant DeSantis has signed this year and the third execution scheduled for this month.

According to court documents, Duckett was a police officer for the Lake County city of Mascotte in May 1987 when Teresa McAbee was last seen getting into his patrol car outside a convenience store. Her body was found in a lake less than a mile away. She had been sexually battered, strangled and drowned.

A letter Friday from Attorney General James Uthmeier, included with the warrant from DeSantis, noted that McAbee's "fingerprints were found on the hood of Duckett's patrol car."

While Duckett maintained his innocence, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery on May 10, 1988, and sentenced to death on June 30, 1988.

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence in 1990, and over the next three decades, Duckett engaged in unsuccessful postconviction litigation in both state and federal courts, Uthmeier wrote.

According to the Lakeland Ledger, Duckett was also a suspect in the deaths of an unidentified young woman whose body was found in a water-filled ditch near Lakeland in 1986 and 14-year-old Jeanifer Shyan Weldon, whose body was found in a rural part of Polk County in October 1987.

Duckett was fired by the Mascotte police when suspected of McAbee's death and went to work at a phosphate mine inside Polk County.

Duckett's story appeared in the CNN true-crime series "Death Row Stories" in 2014.

The state is scheduled to execute Billy Leon Kearse, 53, on Tuesday for the 1991 killing of Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish.

Michael King, 54, is scheduled to be executed on March 17 for the 2008 murder of Denise Amber Lee, 21, a North Port mother of two.

Melvin Trotter, 65, was put to death by lethal injection last Tuesday for the 1986 murder of Virgie Langford, a Manatee County grocery-store owner.

Ronald Heath, 64, was put to death on Feb. 10 for the 1989 murder of Michael Sheridan, who was shot, stabbed and robbed in a wooded area south of Gainesville.

Florida carried out 19 executions in 2025, a modern-era record. The modern era represents the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision halted it.

DOWNLOAD the free Gulf Coast News app for your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.