{"id":5000,"date":"2026-06-22T20:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5000"},"modified":"2026-06-22T20:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:06:42","slug":"judge-rejects-former-lake-cops-request-for-dna-hearing-in-death-row-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5000","title":{"rendered":"Judge rejects former Lake cop\u2019s request for DNA hearing in death row case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n

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Duckett, then a town police officer, was convicted of the fifth grader\u2019s murder in 1988 but has always claimed he was innocent.<\/p>\n

Duckett\u2019s attorneys this spring said an evidentiary hearing was needed after DNA tests conducted in March \u2014 ones not available at the time of their client\u2019s arrest decades ago \u2014 and the results reviewed by a second lab last month showed inconclusive results as to whether Duckett\u2019s DNA was present. The tests were run on semen and hair samples found in the girl\u2019s underwear.<\/p>\n

But Lake Circuit Court Judge Brian Welke said in his order that holding a hearing \u201cregarding the methods and procedures used to obtain DNA results\u201d would not present any new evidence on Duckett\u2019s guilt or innocence.<\/p>\n

Duckett \u201chas 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,\u201d Welke wrote in his order.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, state attorneys last Wednesday asked the Florida Supreme Court to lift the stay of Duckett\u2019s execution the higher court imposed in March to allow for the completion of the DNA testing.<\/p>\n

If the Florida Supreme Court lifts its stay of execution now that Welke has ruled against an evidentiary hearing, it\u2019s likely that Duckett\u2019s execution will move forward, though his attorneys will have a chance to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Duckett\u2019s death warrant on Feb. 27, and his execution was scheduled for March 31.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But on March 6, Welke granted Duckett\u2019s motion for DNA testing of a dried vaginal swab that had been stored at the Lake County Sheriff\u2019s Office and ordered the procedure performed by DNA Labs International or DLI.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In May, Welke ordered DLI to give the DNA testing data to Duckett\u2019s attorneys. They in turn sent it to Dr. David Mittleman of Othram Inc., a private lab, to conduct the analysis of the testing data.<\/p>\n

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But in his report, Mittleman said \u201cthe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last week, Duckett\u2019s attorneys said that an evidentiary hearing was needed to understand that DNA analysis.<\/p>\n

But state attorneys called the request for an evidentiary hearing \u201cunjustified\u201d and said that the girl\u2019s family deserves justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuckett\u2019s request for an evidentiary hearing is nothing but a fishing expedition for information to support a claim that has not even been raised,\u201d said Naomi Nichols, senior assistant state attorney general, in her motion to the Florida Supreme Court, requesting it lift the stay of execution.<\/p>\n

She and other state attorneys argued that Duckett\u2019s attorneys wanted to use the evidentiary hearing as a way to bring up new evidence \u2014 or claims \u2014 for future court proceedings.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s body was found dumped by the side of a lake in Mascotte.<\/p>\n

Duckett\u2019s attorneys said the former officer has \u201cconsistently professed his innocence\u201d in the girl\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

He is now just asking for a \u201cmeaningful opportunity to challenge, confront, explain or rebut that evidence,\u201d his attorney Mary Elizabeth Wells said in a motion to the state Supreme Court on Thursday arguing against lifting the stay of execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Duckett will be executed by the State of Florida without ever being provided the opportunity to fully litigate the relevant issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called it \u201cshocking to the conscience\u201d and \u201ccontrary to the contemporary standards of decency,\u201d in not holding an evidentiary hearing and lifting the stay of execution.<\/p>\n

Read more Alligator attacks, injures Rainbow River snorkeler<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Lake County judge on Monday rejected a request by death row inmate James Duckett to hold a court hearing on recent DNA test results from his decades-old murder case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge rejects former Lake cop\u2019s request for DNA hearing in death row case - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5000\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge rejects former Lake cop\u2019s request for DNA hearing in death row case - 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