Hey, folks, it is Tuesday, March thirty first, the day James Duckett was supposed to be executed in Florida. It will not happen, not today at least thing with that. Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Roll. This is a surprising case because of where it is, who it is, and that there was a stay of execution.
So let's go ahead.
And I hate to say the word unpack all this, but a scheduled execution tonight in Florida is not happened.
Yeah, And it was surprising to have the Florida Supreme Court step in and place his stay of execution for James Aaron Duckett's defense team to have DNA that's been stored for nearly forty years now to be tested. His attorneys saying this could exonerate him. He has maintained his innocence from the beginning. And so the Supreme Court, the state Supreme Court Court stepped in and said, let's get that tested.
Okay, we were on the edge of our seats last week the state. This rarely happened. It certainly doesn't happen in Florida. But a court stepped in and said, hey, there's something relevant enough that we think we shouldn't go through the execution. So Roland, we were waiting standing by last Friday, they said we want to status update by five o'clock. Sure enough, they got one by five o'clock on Friday, and it didn't really help. It didn't move the needle one way or another day.
Yes, it was inconclusive, and so immediately the state then files a petition to the State Supreme Court saying, okay, we did what you said, we put everything on pause. We got the results, and they do not exonerate James Duckett. He has not been proven to be innocent. There is no other suspect, there's no other DNA, and yes it's inconclusive, but it also doesn't exonerate. So we would like to go forward with the planned execution for today, March thirty first,
at six pm. We would like James Aaron Duckett to die by lethal injection as scheduled. And honestly, yes, his defense team filed the motion saying wait, wait, wait, wait wait, can we have another lab look at it. I have to say I didn't think they were going to side with the defense.
And I am not exactly sure why. They didn't explain a lot in their ruling. But the Supreme Court State Supreme Court, when asked by the prosecutor to now lift the stay and let the execution go through at six o'clock to night, the State Supreme Court said, no, our stay is going to stay in place. But rose they put another date on it that I don't necessarily understand what they're waiting for, but in a couple of days they're expecting to hear back from all parties.
That is correct, on April second, that is this Thursday. So in just in two days, the Circuit Court is required to now give an update by five pm or at five pm is the way I believe it was worded. And the only way I can can imagine they could give an update is if another lab is taking a
look at the results. The defense actually had a specific lab that they had fought for initially to actually do the testing and take a look at the DNA and we'll describe where this DNA came from and all of that for those of you who need to be caught up. But the State said no, we wanted at our lab, So the State's lab did it. It's inconclusive and Now the defense says, now, can our lab take a stab
at it? So my understanding would be that yes, another lab is either retesting it or reviewing it, or somehow just another set of scientific guys are on these results to see if it can in fact exonerate duck it.
I mean, let's bottom line, this thing is that a man has been on death row for forty years, literally have his has his life in the balance based on some DNA testing now ropes, that is a big deal and a big headline. The possibility that a death row inmate could be exonerated, however, robes as big of a
headline as that seems to be. There are plenty of others who just look at a guy who was desperate to stay alive, and now he's throwing anything he can up against the wall and to see if it might legally stick.
And look, the cynic in me says that exact same thing. We see this all the time. There's no guilty prisoners on death row. Everyone's innocent, right. Most people say, I didn't do it wasn't me. It was this guy, It was him, It wasn't me. Look, I have to at least consider the fact that six out of the seven Florida State Supreme Court justices opposed the state's request to go forward with the execution. That is significant in a state like Florida, and six out of seven that to
me speaks volumes. This wasn't a split decision.
Oh this does this not speak to.
It does not. There is nothing they suggested. There's nothing. You please tell We've been researching this case for a while. I don't see anything other than his own camp that is hootin and hollering about an innocent man is about to be put to death.
No, and look everyone, and we have gone over the evidence that was presented in court. They claim it was all circumstantial. It was the fact that he was last seen with this eleven year old girl. And by the way, we are talking about we're talking about an eleven year old girl who was strangled, drowned, and raped in nineteen eighty seven. And this officer, he was a police officer. He was a rookie officer, correct James Aaron Jumper. He
was a young guy, a new officer. And he even admits to having seen this eleven year old girl the night she went missing. She apparently left her home to go she told her mom she needed to get some pencils. Ten thirty at night, She's seen with a sixteen year old boy near this convene in store. According to James Duckett and to eyewitnesses, he tells a little girl and the sixteen year old, you guys are out past curfew, tells the sixteen year old to skidaddle, gets her in
the back of his car. She's never seen again. That's damning right then, and there the fact that he is the last known person to have seen her alive.
Yeah, throwing the other stuff.
The other stuff is that her handprints are on the hood of his car.
Okay.
The other evidence is that that there are tire tracks that are leading to the lake where her body was found the following day by a fisherman. And the fact that there was a pubic hair that they said matched his pubic hair. They didn't have the DNA testing abilities that they do now. And this is where we are. There was some seamen found on the eleven year old's genes, and that semen has now been able to undergo a type of testing that wasn't available up until recently.
Okay, please put in context which you mean by recently.
Here's the twenty twenty four and this is significant. According to police and prosecutors, James Aaron Duckett was given the opportunity to have that DNA tested with this new way of testing it, and he declined, why the opportunity to have that seaman tested? And it wasn't until Governor DeSantis signed his death warrant and his clock started ticking. You
got thirty days. All of a sudden, his defense team in the last hour and a few days leading up to the execution said wait a minute, we want that DNA tested.
Well, I skip it in the first place. I'm not saying that sarcastically. I'm saying, what was their legal reasoning for why they did not want that DNA tested? What was their logic.
I haven't seen a direct response to that. I've only seen the prosecutor raise the exact question that you did to the court saying I'm sorry, but an innocent man would have asked for this to be tested immediately as soon as proper testing was available, and that in and of itself speaks for itself.
S has this been a case? We've seen some cases. I mean, what's the folks who get people off who take.
It Connison's project, the innocent project.
This is not one of their cases.
No, nobody else is out there hooting and holland that innocent man is about to be killed. Now, is it possible? I guess robes, But we are now being inundated at this point. If you were, sweetheart, Look, there's a way that innocent people act, and they're not quiet.
For forty years, they are not.
It's interesting that you say that, because I actually did a deeper dive and was reading what the sheriff said about his deputy, and look, police aren't one. Aren't a group of folks who look to their own to look for suspects or to be suspicious of. But he said it was his rookie deputy who he was on the scene with him the next day. He said the way Officer Duckett was acting was so strange that he started to investigate. He said he was uncomfortable, He wasn't curious
about how she died. He was shifty in a way that he felt like made him suddenly suspicious. I thought that was interesting that his own sheriff, on the day her body was found, started getting He said, the way he was talking about how he was the last person to see him. Sounded like a rehearsed, nervous story, and it raised a red flag for him to dig deeper. And that is how the investigation into Duckett began was because of his sheriff's suspicions. It took five months for
them to actually bring charges and arrest him. But he said that very day that that little girl's body was found, he thought, hmm, I thought that was of note as well.
That does not guilt to make just because somebody had a gut feeling. Sure, but it is relevant.
And I do think I hadn't looked to see. But when Duckett was sentenced to death, Before he was sentenced to death, I should mention James Duckett actually in court records, said this to the judge. He has always maintained his innocence. He said, I did not do this. When the person who did this repeats it, I want to see the face of the person telling the victim's mother, father, sister, brother, I am sorry. We thought we had the right one before.
That's interesting, that's what he said right before sentencing. He was defiant.
Every prosecutor and judge in the country said, yeap that sounds familiar. I heard that before, right before I sent a guy off to a life sentence.
Yeah, sounds about right.
Everybody on cell Block D is innocent. Everybody so fine. There are exceptions they should be listened to. But at some point, Robes, when do you stop all the back and forth and the madness we don't have We have our issues with the death penalty, yes, but we also have penalties or problems with it being delayed justice that
this is justice. Why are we waiting forty years? Why are we waiting forty two forty five so we can get every lab in the country to test this DNA that he had forty years to test?
And yet you made the point, Look, if it's just a matter of a day or two more for another lab to take a look at it, why not do that? And it seems like that is where the Florida State Supreme Court fell on this. It's better to be safe than sorry. There's no undoing an execution, and so why not push it a little forward? So we're hopefully going to get some more answers about what will happen to Ducket given where we are, we're literally in limbo right now,
in just a matter of days on Thursday. But when we come back, we're going to talk about what Duckett has been doing for these past thirty days since DeSantis signed his death warrant. He's been writing all about it on a website. And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. The execution is off for now of James Aaron Duckett. He was scheduled to die tonight by lethal injection for the rape and murder of an
eleven year old girl nearly forty years ago. The Florida State Supreme Ford said let's give it a few more days after the first DNA tests from the case came back inconclusive, and the defense asked for another lab to take a look at the results before making the decision about when or if to actually follow through with the execution of James Aaron Duckett. And so a whole host of events take place once a governor signs a death
warrant that I really didn't know. Obviously, this is all very rehearsed and scheduled, but I didn't realize the day the death warrant is signed, action is taken.
Yeah, you're isolated this and they keep an eye on you. This is a totally different It shifts and right, what is it? They their own death were over thirty forty years, but they end up not necessarily an isolation that long, certainly in Florida.
In Florida's Oh yes, so he actually duck it. Actually, there's a website out there called Prison Writers, and I look, they do vet this writing so as to not upset or harm any victims' families out there. But they have some editors who have journalism backgrounds, and they make sure that the writing is non offensive. But he was allowed to post through this website what it's been like for
him these past thirty days. And so he said. On February twenty seventh, that is when DeSantis signed his death warrant. He said, literally, two vans pulled in. A few minutes later, a door to the wing opened up. The warden called his name and said, it's time. The governor has signed your warrant.
So he got.
Handcuffs, shackles, waste chain, and he was escorted past all his friends that he had spent all this time and death row with saying goodbye, and going into a van heading to death death watch basically where he had to sign copies of his death warrant and go to the Q where he now yes, had a plexiglass a bunk, a locker, a small table, a toilet, a sink, but he had to let go of all of his limited personal property, including his phone, access to internet. All of that gone.
Yeah, the execution still might go through. I mean, the execution still might happen. I'm not sure how active, how long the warrants they active. I think they go a little while. I think they anticipate these things, do they not? Isn't the warrant active? They don't have to sign another one, do they?
I don't believe now once you go past the date though, I don't know when they extended it to you know how, Sometimes they extend the death warrant where they give themselves some time in case there's some sort of issue, usually only a day. I thought, yeah, I'm not sure how this is going to work. But he is still sitting there from what we understand, because it is in limbo right now in this Q block basically, or Q wing
is what it's called. And it's just interesting to hear him talk about what it's like in these final days for death re inmates. He was expecting it to be about thirty days. He said, I miss emailing. I mostly miss music. The silence is constant. I miss seeing outside. The two windows are painted over. You can only see their outline. He says that an officer a station in front of his cell twenty four to seven, logging everything he does, and he is allowed to write on this tablet,
which then his words were able to be published. But he has a space where he says final words because he is preparing to die, he said. My legal team continues to fight. They have not stopped since the warrant was issued. But this is where I say goodbye to those who have read my work. I wanted to write this last piece because, as I see it, it's time. Keep me in your prayers and thank you for the support.
It's I just didn't know that there was even an outlet for inmates like this to just basically communicate with the outside world about what it's like to be on death row or what it's like to await your execution date.
I guess some people find it, I don't know, interesting, fascinating part of someone's story. I don't know. There might be others looking at that and find it disgusting. Why do they get this out and why do they get to put a message out? But they have freedom of speech. I guess they shouldn't be kept from speaking. They are allowed to profit from their crime, so there are some
types of rules put in place. But I just wonder as you were reading that, I just I wonder what the mom of the victim feels about him having a message. I wonder if she's even aware, does she even check in? I just I don't know he's writing as the sympathetic figure in this whole thing. If he's an innocent man, obviously he's a sympathetic figure. But I just haven't studied the case. But I have seen enough of the folks who are studying this case who do have opinions on
this case. It's just not that ground swell of in a sense that's being out there for this sense.
To your point, and it's one thing to proclaim your innocence, it's another thing to have a whole other group of folks who devote their lives to trying to do their best to make sure that people who are innocent, who haven't been properly represented or who haven't had a fair trial, actually make sure that they and their rights are protected. Yes, there's no group that has come to his aid or have come out to say he didn't do it. He's
an innocent man. He's pretty much at this point the only person other than his attorneys who say he's innocent.
So I mean, we should see again, Robes. I'd see it through, not to the point of being unreasonable. If you want to, Yes, give him the lab, let them test. Then it comes back inconclusive. What do we do then, Well, since we don't know for sure, then the least you could do is commute his sentence.
Is that what they're setting up?
This could probably a media narrative. This could all be a pr campaign to get us talking about it, to get more people interested in this thing, to where there is a ground swell of support for him and attention for him, and maybe you get some big names on TV talking about him.
Who knows that lawyers are doing the job trying to keep a man alive and I can't fault them for that.
Wow, I got it too, I got it too. And he talks about clemency and what does clemency mean if that's what he's actually seeking at this point? But he said, it's a chance to convince those in charge who you are, not making excuses for why you were here, but showing true, honest change by presenting testimony, evidences, witnesses and making the argument I am not now who I was. Then I guess he's talking about other crimes. When I read that, he's writing about what clemency means and how it's not
being extended to inmates in Florida. If he's talking about himself, he's claiming he was innocent from the beginning. So that's a strange premise to write about tritle. And that's what it seems like. That is what he seems like.
You should that makes sense, knock yourself out. But how just how far do we take this thing?
Right?
How far is it allowed? And to his argument about clemency rose, what are we supposed to do to folks if you have a ten year sentence and then you go back to the judge in three years and say, look, I'm a changed man. I shouldn't be here for ten years because I have been changed. Would we listen to that person or would we say no, you need to serve your time as justice has been laid out for
what you did. Take James Dunckett. You're saying I shouldn't have to see through the punishment I was given for my crime because now I'm a different man than I was. That ain't how it works.
It's just not and that's you got to.
Take issue with it. But Robes, I compare him to anybody else in jail who's going to say, Hey, I'm different now, so that sentence doesn't count. No, you're being punished for what you did at the time when you did it.
Yep. I know you make a very good noise, and I think a lot of people feel exactly the same way as you. It'll be interesting to see a what the results are come Thursday, if there are new results coming, and be what happens next to James Duckett.
This is the one I was just thinking, Okay, well, if we get word the execution is not going to go through and he's going to be spared and he's just going to get life in prison. Or if they go through with the execution, do you have a preference?
No?
No, not that. How do you feel either way? Right?
If they decide to execute this man, if they decide not to, My first thought went to the mom of the victim who wants this guy executed, and so I to think his sentence is commuted and we save a life is something I am on board with. But I have a problem being on board with it when the mother of the eleven year old who was drowned, raped says I need this justice. If I have a hard time going against that.
I know we always. I do think that they're should be weight given to the victim's family. I think ultimately what their wishes are should be considered alongside the sentencing. But at this point, we just know that he was in fact sentenced to death. We will see what the Florida State Supreme Court decides on Thursday at five pm April seventh.
Sorry, what did I no, no, no, no no, I'm just confirming the death warrant actually stays active for another week. Oh so April seven, Oh wow, thank you many time he wants you.
Okay, wow, So that's interesting. So April second is when yep, we're going to hear next from the State Supreme Court, and that means they would have five days to actually carry out this execution if they choose to do so.
I'm sure the state is like Yep, we are rare and go.
I'm sure well. The prosecutor definitely signaled that they were, so of course, we will continue to keep our eye on this story and bring you the very latest In the meantime, though, thank you for listening to us. I made me Roebuck alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon. Ten