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 com out who killed a child. 14 years after duckett s conviction, a retired miami police homicide detective named marsha frank began doing an investigation for a being wanted to write. i retired to a little town and it is in the mountains. it is beautiful. i had an idea for a novel in which the protagonist ends up on death row. so being an investigator, i wanted to talk to a death row inmate. i got 15 names. i wrote each of them a letter. eight wanted to tell me how they weren t guilty. one of the responses was from james duckett. and he seemed logical. he seemed articulate. contrary to what i promised