RAIFORD, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for James Duckett, a former Central Florida police officer convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl more than 30 years ago.
Duckett’s execution is scheduled for March 31.
Duckett was found guilty of the 1987 murder of Teresa McAbbee.
The signing of the warrant follows decades of legal proceedings after Duckett received a death sentence in 1988.
Duckett was an officer with the Mascotte Police Department in Lake County when he encountered McAbbee in 1987.
According to investigators, he picked the child up from a convenience store.
Her body was later discovered less than a mile from that location.
Medical evidence presented during the case showed the girl had been sexually battered, strangled and drowned.
Duckett was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death in 1988.
He has remained on death row for more than 30 years following the murder.
Duckett has until March 13 to file a legal appeal against the execution order.
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