evidence of duckett s alibi and depose some key witnesses. jack assured me that he would handle this. don t worry about it. consider the short vacation. he said we ll get this straightened out will. i kept telling jack, i think you re overconfident and taking too much for granted. you think they don t have that strong of a case. but you re not trying to convince me. you re trying to convince 12 other people. in order to retain jack edmond, james duckett s family had taken out a mortgage on a moment putting their confidence in one of the most renowned defense attorneys in florida. everything i could find, this attorney did a horrendous job in defending james duckett. defense attorney 101. you take depositions from the state s witnesses. the key witnesses anyway. this was never done. in 1997, beth wells appealed duckett s 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 perform
happened. but you don t have a smoking gun. you don t have what a lot of people demand in a case. from a legal point of view, he really should never have been convicted. it s a good thing that he was because there would probably be other dead kids out there. you know, i m not a fry em all, fry em sooner, that sort of thing. i feel the weight of the state deciding to take someone s life. but if the death penalty is appropriate for any case, it s appropriate for this case. because of what he did to teresa mcabee. god forbid if he got death row and was a serial sex killer, how many more victims would there be before they caught duckett again? grant a new trial. i m not asking to walk out the door. grant me a new trial. let s put everything on the table and do it right and see what happens.
hired and mentored duckett held fast in his belief that investigators were focusing on the wrong man. my confidence in him hadn t been shaken. i was of the opinion that the truth is going to come out. he is going to be exonerated as a suspect. we re 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? you re not telling me the truth. yes, sir. no, you re not. he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. duckett s trial began on april 25th, 1988. assistant state attorney steve herm prosecuted the case and sought the death penalty. that little girl died in the most traumatic, terrifying way,
anybody. but duckett s defense attorney, jack he had monld, had not questioned the pubic hair results at trial of he also neglected to gather evidence of duckett s alibi and to depose some key witnesses. jack assured me that he would handle this. don t worry about it. consider the short vacation. he said we ll get this straightened out will. i kept telling jack, i think you re overconfident and taking too much for granted. you think they don t have that strong of a case. but you re not trying to convince me. you re trying to convince 12 other people. in order to retain jack edmond, james duckett s family had taken out a mortgage on a moment putting their confidence in one of the most renowned defense attorneys in florida. everything i could find, this attorney did a horrendous job in defgd james duckett. defense attorney 101. you take depositions from the state s witnesses. the key witnesses any way.
marshall contacted jim. whoa, i know nothing about this guy. i have no reason to testify him. from jim s 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 i ve got a friend that used to work for the miami herald. and i had read adam buchanan s stories before over the years. and so i knew who the name was. and so i felt excited. edna buchanan was a pulitzer crime winning crime report he for the miami herald. an outstanding reporter, one of the best i ve ever known. i wanted to tell her what the story was. marshall frank kept calling me. he had been a source of mine over the years and he said he found this case where he is convinced the man on death row was innocent. i was dubious because if the