Page 3 - Jims Case News Today

Evidence of ducketts alibi and depose some key witnesses. >> jack assured me that he would handle this. dont worry about it. consider the short vacation. he said well get this straightened out will. >> i kept telling jack, i think youre overconfident and taking too much for granted. you think they dont have that strong of a case. but youre not trying to convince me. youre trying to convince 12 other people. >> in order to retain jack edmond, james ducketts family had taken out a mortgage on a mo...

Happened. but you dont have a smoking gun. you dont have what a lot of people demand in a case. >> from a legal point of view, he really should never have been convicted. its a good thing that he was because there would probably be other dead kids out there. >> you know, im not a fry em all, fry em sooner, that sort of thing. i feel the weight of the state deciding to take someones life. but if the death penalty is appropriate for any case, its appropriate for this case. because of what he did t...

Hired and mentored duckett held fast in his belief that investigators were focusing on the wrong man. >> my confidence in him hadnt been shaken. i was of the opinion that the truth is going to come out. he is going to be exonerated as a suspect. were going on get to business and find out who murdered this child. >> last time i seen her she turned the corner and was headed home. >> do you want to know something? youre not telling me the truth. >> yes, sir. >> no, youre not. >> he was arrested and...

>> marshall contacted jim. whoa, i know nothing about this guy. i have no reason to testify him. from jims point of view, maybe this will be the person who is able to get somebody to listen. >> with the case at a dead end and duckett headed toward execution, marshall frank had an idea. >> he said ive got a friend that used to work for the "miami herald." and i had read adam buchanans stories before over the years. and so i knew who the name was. and so i felt excited. >> edna buchanan was a puli...

This was never done. >> in 1997, beth wells appealed the case to the lake county circuit court in florida. hoping to get a new trial for duckett, wells called jack edmond to the stand to account for his poor performance. edmond told the court, i blew it. >> i trusted jack edmond. i trusted that 25 years of experience as a criminal attorney, that he would correct this and i was wrong. >> beth wells also offered alternate suspects for the crime starting with excould have beens and migrant workers ...

I didnt. >> 11-year-old was killed. thats tragic. murder should never have happened. but you dont have a smoking gun. you dont have what a lot of people demand in a case. >> from a legal point of view, he really should never have been convicted. its a good thing that he was because there would probably be other dead kids out there. >> you know, im not a fry em all, fry em sooner, that sort of thing. i feel the weight of the state deciding to take someones life. but if the death penalty is approp...

Lime green bag with a stuffed animal inside the night she disappeared. >> i got call one day from ducketts wife out of the blue, and she said, mr. hurm, i think jimmy may have had something to do with that case. i say why do you say that? because i remember him coming home with a bag with a little stuffed animal, and she said the reason i remember it is i was mad at him because we had two boys, and i said why wouldnt you bring two toys, because you know theyll fight over it. i get goose bumps th...

When i walked into the room it was like seeing some old friend. he was so happy to see me. >> i believe it was on fathers day he showed up here. and i thought we had a good conversation. ate a hamburger, had a conversation, we talked about the case, this and that will. >> i asked him about the three girls and he said that never happened. it was all a lie. well, i dont know those girls but i didnt believe him when he said that. because if one said it, its a lie. if all three said it independently...

With the killing -- >> and she saw that. she called a female corrections officer over. and told her, i was there. i know something about that case. >> the sheriffs department of lake county come talk to me. the inference was, we can give you a break if you saw something that we should know about. hint, hint. >> gwen testified against duckett and was let out of jail having served less than six months of a two-year sentence. a year after james duckett was sentenced to death gurley recanted her t...

1988. >> wroi duckett a letter. tell me more about this situation. well, i got a big letter back. >> he reached out to me. he said im a retired detective from the miami police department. he said i want to help you out. i want to see what your case is. i told him, i walked in this building scared to death as a young man. never been inside a prison. never been in any trouble before. and here i am going to death row. i had a career going. i had a beautiful wife, i had two young sons, i had a futur...