Page 2 - Weldon Murder News Today

Guilty of capital sexual battery and murder in the first degree. on june 30th, 1988, james duckett was sentenced to death. >> when they sentenced him, it was probably one of the best days of my life. because i took a bad cop out who killed a child. >> 14 years after ducketts conviction, a retired miami police homicide detective named marshall frank began doing an investigation for a crime novel he wanted to write. >> i retired to a little town called maggie valley and its in the mountains. it is...

Eight of them wanted to tell me how they werent guilty. one of the responses was from james duckett. and he seemed logical. he seemed articulate. contrary to what i promised myself i wouldnt do, i said im going to look more into this. im not a bleeding heart. i dont fall for people saying im not guilty. ive heard it all in my career. i put a lot of people in jail for murder. i dont think i was ever wrong. so i pull out all the files. i read every report. when i started assembling all the evidenc...

>> police never charge duckett with the weldon murder, but they have said theyll pursue duckett for the crime if he is ever let off death row for the mcabee murder, a possibility beth wells is counting on. >> theyre presently reviewing jims case, and im 100% confident that when they evaluate this evidence, theyll say, you know what? we got it wrong. we have to give this guy a new trial. >> the hard evidence was tire tracks which cant be identified to his car. a pubic hair, nothing that he can ev...

Discovered that gwen had an alibi for the night of the murder. an alibi that the jury had never heard. >> he will me he could not have been there at the murder because he got a call from the jiffy stop, another convenience store in a different part of town. so he went over there around the time the little girl was being murdered. he jotted everything down in his little spiral log book. time, activity, traffic stop. >> the notebook has her information in it. that i wrote down that night. >> i sai...

>> i wanted to see a copy of the notepad that duckett told me about. >> according to the defense, ducketts police notebook from the night of murder contained his alibi. >> the notebook should have been in the trial record. and it is not. the jury never sees it. and when you see it, when you look at it, you go, theres evidence right here. >> beth faxed me copies of those pages. i looked at them. and that began to give me some doubts. i could be wrong all along. hold. i go through periods where it...

On a notepad that you had gone to jiffy stop at the time of the murder. and youre being questioned by detectives and you had an alibi. did you tell them about it? he said, no. i said, why not? and then he said, you know, i dont know why i didnt tell them that. >> i didnt even think about it as far as being an alibi. i never even thought about the notebook during trial. never even dawned on me. >> the blood seeped from my head. i felt cold. someone is questioning you and you have an alibi for whe...

At that time he had been on death row about 16 years. thats a long time to be cooped up in a walk-in closet. when i walked into the room it was almost 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 soda. we talked about the case and this and that. >> 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 ...

>> despite the community uproar, police chief mike brady who had 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? >> yes, sir. >> your...

>> gwen testified against duckett and was let out of jail having served less than six months of a two-year sentence. but a year after james duckett was sentenced to death, gurley recanted her original testimony and said she never actually saw duckett with tremendous is a mcabee. in a sworn affidavit, she claimed she had been induced into it by investigator rocky harris. >> rocky harris took me in and out of the jail. they asked a lot of questions, a lot of questions. >> the best i recall, i neve...

And rod sterling is the governor. you never just say, it cant be because often it is. >> with franks help in 2003, edna buchanan wrote three front page stories for the "miami herald" about ducketts possible innocence. >> she started writing the stories and i started getting all these media requests. i mean, from tvs and newspapers and "48 hours" and "primetime live." they were just flooding in my cell. >> as publicity grew around ducketts case, marshall frank was finally able to convince beth we...