Former Florida officer who raped, murdered 11-year-old set to be executed

An execution date has been set for a former Mascotte police officer who, in May 1987, assaulted and murdered an 11-year-old girl.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for James Aren Duckett on Friday. He’s scheduled to be executed on March 31. It’ll be the state’s 5th execution this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025.

Duckett was convicted in the murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee about a year after her death. According to officials, Duckett took the 11-year-old to a lake, where he sexually battered, strangled and drowned her.

An investigation uncovered several pieces of evidence leading to Duckett’s conviction.

Detectives learned McAbee had been seen getting into Duckett’s patrol car at a convenience store less than a mile from the lake where her body was found.

Investigators described finding “distinctive tire tracks” near the lake, which matched the tires on Duckett’s patrol car.

They also found McAbee’s fingerprints on the hood of Duckett’s patrol car, indicating “that she had been sitting backwards on the hood and had scooted up the car,” according to the death warrant signed by DeSantis.

State officials said Duckett has spent 3 decades engaged in postconviction litigation but has been unsuccessful.

His execution is among three others scheduled for March, starting with Billy Leon Kearse on March 3 and then Michael Lee King on March 17.

Two other convicted murderers, Ronald Palmer Heath and Melvin Trotter, have already been put to death in Florida this year.

Source: WFLA.news, Staff, February 28, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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