Florida carried out the execution of former police officer James Aren Duckett on Tuesday, bringing an end to nearly four decades of appeals in a case involving the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee.
Duckett, 68, was put to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison after courts rejected his final attempts to halt the sentence. His execution came after a last round of litigation centered largely on requests for additional DNA testing and claims that further testing could potentially raise questions about his conviction.
The case had reached both Florida’s highest court and the U.S. Supreme Court in the days immediately preceding the execution.
