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 to 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. you re not telling me the truth. yes, sir. no, you re not. james duckett was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. duckett s trial began on april 25th, 1988. assistant state attorney steve hurm prosecuted the case and sought the death penalty. that little girl died in the most traumatic, terrifying way, in the dark, alone with a monster. hurm called an eyewitness 17-year-old gwen gurley to the stand.
according to the defense, duckett s 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, there s 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.
he was so happy to see me. i believe it was on father s 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 don t know those girls but i didn t believe him when he said that. because if one said it, maybe it s a lie. but all three, independently of each other it s not likely they were all lying. but that didn t prove anything about murder. so i finally come to the big question, the big question was this. when you were questioned the night after the murder, you knew then that you had written down on a notepad that you had gone to jiffy stop at the time of the murder. and you re 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 don t know why i didn t tell them that. i didn t 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 where you were at the time of a murder somewhere and you don t tell authorities that alibi. that s for a reason. the reason has to be, there is no alibi. i knew then this was a guilty man. i knew then. marshall frank called and said something like, whoops! you ll never guess what happened. and i had this sinking feeling, and he said, i think he s guilty. and i said, what? i thought this seasoned homicide detective was reliable and trustworthy.
they re not guilty because i heard it all my career. i put a lot of people in jail for murder. i don t think i was ever wrong. so i pull out all the files. i read every report. when i started assembling all the evidence, it is like a mosaic. you get a little piece of this tile, a little piece of that tile, a little piece of that tile, you put it all together and you get a picture. and the picture was innocent. put your hand over your heart. is it beating? good! then my nutrition heart health mix is for you. it s a wholesome blend of peanuts, pecans and other delicious nuts specially mixed for people with hearts. planters. nutrition starts with nut. and when you bundle your home and auto insurance through progressive, you ll save a bundle! [ laughs ] jamie. right. make a bad bundle joke, a buck goes in the jar. i guess that s just how the cookie bundles. now, you re gonna have two bundles of joy! i m not pregnant. i m gonna go. [ tapping, cash register dings ] there you go.