girl. but james duckett continued to maintain his innocence as he sat on death row for more than a decade. his story, tonight. make sure you watch cnn s original series death row stories tonight 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. let me get back to our special coverage of missing flight 370 in just a moment. how the united states is helping in the search, next. you can stay inside. or get behind the wheel of the jeep grand cherokee with an available best-in-class 4x4 traction management system to maximize control, giving you confidence in all weather conditions. this is the 2014 jeep grand cherokee. it is the best of what we re made of. well-qualified lessees can lease the 2014 grand cherokee laredo 4x4 for 359 a month. america s favorite lasagna. topped with a mouth-watering blend of fresh cheese and aged parmesan. it makes our lasagna a delicious centerpiece for this table
so that s why the focus was on jim duckett. there was no reason to suspect a law enforcement officer would do such a horrific crime. beth, what s your response? other than the evidence. when you hear of evidence like that, that steve was talking about. for instance, the fingerprint on the hood of the car, the tire tracks. what s your response? well, after trial we discovered a number of things. for example, the tire tracks, one of the police officers, jim s boss at the time, said that he came back after the crime scene tape had been taken down and realized that the plaster for the tire tracks was actually outside where they alleged to have found them. and it was where his car had been parked. and he had the same tires. so i think there s substantial evidence. the fingerprints, presumably she jumped up on the car. mr. duckett had the opportunity and was supposed to wash his car at the end of the night and didn t do it because he was
on ducket. do you think that impacted the investigation as a whole? certainly. the victim was last seen less than 400 feet from her house. yet they never even searched her home. there were men living in the home with her mother who weren t related to her by marriage who she had complained about previously to a relative bothering her. so, yes, i definitely think that. now, steve, how about you? when you hear an argument like that, you ve never wavered in your belief that james duckett is guilty that duckett is guilty of this murder. why are you so convinced? well, the evidence, jim. and as far as exploring other evidence, it centered on duckett very quickly because of the evidence that was found at the crime scene. beginning with the tire tracks. the tire tracks led investigators to talk to duckett. and he denied ever having been down in the area where the body was dumped the night before. they asked further questions and they processed the car and found her fingerprints on the
then within a couple hours he was running stationary radar on highway 50 going through the town writing speeding tickets. now, i used to be a police officer. he d only been on the department for, i think, less than a year. this was a huge case for him in a small town. a missing girl. and yet he just went back to running radar because he knew exactly where she was. she was not missing as far as he was concerned. so it was his behavior, his explanation of what he d done when he saw teresa at the store, coupled with the physical evidence including his pubic hair found in her panties that were the deciding factors on prosecuting him. and so far every court that s looked at this has agreed that he s not entitled to a new trial. he got a fair trial. and the evidence that was submitted against him was more than sufficient to justify his conviction and sentence. well, it s a fascinating case. i want to thank both of you for making your case in the story of james duckett. steve hurm and beth