Teresa McAbee was 11 years old when she walked to a convenience store to buy a pencil.
She never made it home – and for 38 years, the man who took her life has been eating, sleeping, and breathing on Florida's death row.
But Ron DeSantis just made sure that ends on March 31.
What James Duckett Did to Teresa McAbee
It was the night of May 11, 1987.
James Duckett was the only officer on patrol in Mascotte, a small Lake County town.
He spotted Teresa outside a convenience store and – while in uniform, in his patrol car – questioned her, then put her in the passenger seat and drove away.
Her body was found the next morning in a lake less than a mile away.
The medical examiner's testimony was as clear as it was horrifying: Duckett sexually assaulted the child while she was alive, strangled her, and then drowned her.
Evidence pointed directly at him from every angle.
The tire tracks at the murder scene were unusual enough that the investigator noticed them while leaving the crime scene – he stopped, compared them to the Mascotte patrol car on the road, and confirmed they matched.
The tires were Goodyear Eagle mud and snow tires, designed for northern driving – so out of place in Central Florida that the local tire shop had never sold a single set in nine years.
Teresa's fingerprints were on the hood of Duckett's patrol car, in a position that showed she'd been sitting on it, facing backward.
An FBI hair expert testified there was a high probability a pubic hair found in Teresa's underwear was Duckett's.
A witness at the store watched Duckett lead Teresa toward his patrol car.
Then there was what Duckett did afterward.
He told the clerk not to post the missing child flyer because it wasn't a good picture.
He had a gap in his radio log from 10:50 p.m. to 12:10 a.m. – the exact window Teresa went missing.
He showed up at the police station looking, according to witnesses, clean and fresh, as if he'd just come on duty.
A jury convicted him. A judge sentenced him to death. That was 1988.
38 Years of Legal Delay
Duckett has filed appeals in virtually every court that would hear him – Florida state courts, the Florida Supreme Court, and the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
He tried to get a new trial based on a witness recanting her testimony. Denied – the Florida Supreme Court found the circumstantial evidence so strong it wouldn't have changed the outcome.
He raised claims about FBI hair analysis testimony. Denied.
He challenged his sentence under a different legal framework. Denied.
A federal habeas petition in 2007. Denied in 2010.
Thirty-eight years. Every court. Every angle. All denied.
DeSantis reviewed the case for executive clemency and determined it was – in the warrant's own language – "not appropriate."
The Attorney General confirmed no legal stays are in place.
DeSantis Is Delivering on a Promise Democrats Never Made
This execution is the fifth death warrant DeSantis has signed in 2026, arriving on the heels of a year that shocked the nation.
https://twitter.com/STARING_KRYSTAL/status/2027780483547893976?s=20
Florida executed 19 people in 2025 – shattering the state's previous record of eight, set in 2014, and accounting for roughly 40% of all executions in the United States that year.
The national total of 47 executions was the highest in 16 years.
When asked why, DeSantis didn't reach for legal theory or policy language.
"Some of these crimes were committed in the '80s," he said. "Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly. If I honestly thought someone was innocent, I would not pull the trigger."
Teresa McAbee's killer has had 38 years to file every appeal and exhaust every legal avenue the system offers.
Now that account comes due.
March 31.
Sources:
- James Tutten, "Death warrant signed for former Central Florida police officer," WFTV, February 28, 2026.
- Maria Hernandez, "Florida Gov. DeSantis Signs Death Warrant For Former Officer In Brutal 1987 Child Murder Case," Tampa Free Press, March 1, 2026.
- Sierra Rains, "Former Florida officer who raped, murdered 11-year-old set to be executed," WFLA, February 27, 2026.
- Duckett v. State, 568 So. 2d 891 (Fla. 1990); Duckett v. State, 918 So.2d 224 (Fla. 2006); Duckett v. State, 148 So. 3d 1163 (Fla. 2014).
- "Florida sets up third execution in 2026 as state leads US death penalty surge," WUSF/NBC Miami, January 30, 2026.
- "Florida executes record 19 inmates in 2025 under Gov. Ron DeSantis," Corrections1/Tampa Bay Times, December 23, 2025.
