No Execution Tonight! Florida Supreme Court Says State Cannot Execute James Duckett… For Now
Intimate Knowledge
iHeartPodcasts
3.5 • 697 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
6 out of 7 Florida State Supreme Court Justices ruled against the prosecution’s request that James Duckett be executed tonight at 6 pm for the 1987 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. The ruling came after DNA testing requested by the defense was inconclusive, prompting the state to ask for the court to move forward with Duckett’s planned execution. The defense asked for more time and further testing. The Supreme Court has now insisted a new update this Thursday to make its ultimate decision.
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.1 | Hey there, folks. |
| 0:07.2 | It is Tuesday, March 31st. |
| 0:10.4 | The day, James Duckett was supposed to be executed in Florida. |
| 0:15.9 | It will not happen. |
| 0:17.5 | Not today, at least. |
| 0:18.4 | And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and T.J. Robs, this is a |
| 0:21.8 | surprising case because of where it is, who it is, and that there was a stay of execution. So |
| 0:28.7 | let's go ahead and I hate to say the word, unpack all this, but a scheduled execution |
| 0:33.8 | tonight in Florida is not happening. Yeah, and it was surprising to have the Florida |
| 0:38.6 | Supreme Court step in and place his stay of execution for James Aaron Duckett's defense team to have |
| 0:45.6 | DNA that's been stored for nearly 40 years now to be tested. His attorney saying this could exonerate him. |
| 0:53.8 | He has maintained his innocence from the |
| 0:56.2 | beginning. And so the Supreme Court, the state Supreme Court stepped in and said, let's get that |
| 1:01.8 | tested. Okay. We were on the edge of our seats last week. This rarely happens. It certainly doesn't |
| 1:08.0 | 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. |
| 1:13.7 | So, Rooms, we were waiting, standing by last Friday. They said, we want a status update by |
| 1:18.6 | five o'clock. Sure enough, they got one by five o'clock on Friday, and it didn't really help. |
| 1:24.7 | It didn't move the needle one way or another. Yes, it was inconclusive. And so |
| 1:29.6 | immediately the state then files a petition to the state Supreme Court saying, okay, we did what |
| 1:37.6 | you said. We put everything on pause. We got the results. And they do not exonerate James Duckett. |
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