Stay updated with breaking news from Gurley dairy road. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Gwen, she said she saw the child get into the police car. marshall discovered there was more to gwen gurley, the only eyewitness than jurors had been led to believe. i wanted to know how that came about that she would testify against duckett. gwen gurley was always getting involved in thefts and involved in disturbances and all of a sudden she becomes a star witness with the worst credibility you could ever have. in 87, i was 16, i was a typical teenager, i would say. except i was getting in a little bit of trouble. when gurley was in the leesburg city jail three counts of grand theft. the news report of duckett s indictment came on the news. james duckett in connection with the killing and she saw that. she called a female corrections officer over. and told her, i was there. ....
But the presiding judge put a stop to gwen s admission, warning her of perjury charges if she changed her testimony. judge lockett told me if i perjured myself that i could be sentenced to the maximum of i think it was seven years for each perjury. so i pled the fifth. we asked the judge to grant immunity and he just didn t do it. how can you kill somebody, how can you execute somebody and you have a state s key witness that wants to tell the truth and yet because it is not what the state wants, they re going to threaten her with perjury and send her back to prison. what kind of system is that? while duckett s appeal was severely weakened without gurley s recanted testimony, beth wells was still able to attack the prosecution s case starting with the tire tracks ....
I know something about that case. the sheriff s department of lake county come talk to me. the inference was, we can give you a break if you saw something that we should know about. hint, hint. 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 ducat with theresa mcabee. in a sworn affidavit, she claimed she had been induced into testifying against ducat 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 never offered her any deal whatsoever. after learning that gwen gurley had recanted her testimony, marshall frank also ....
Gurley testified that she saw theresa talking to ducat. moments later she saw duckett leave the scene with a small person in his police car. were you able to see the car? yes. were you able to see inside the car? yes. how many people did you see? two. prosecutors also called three women who each testified that officer duckett had made sexual advances while he was on duty. they were all accosted by duckett when he was on duty in uniform in his patrol car on the midnight shift and taken by him to wooded areas. it took the jury less than 9 0 minutes to find james duckett 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. ....
Lied at his original trial. but the presiding judge put a stop to gwen s admission, warning her of perjury charges if she changed her testimony. judge lockett told me if i perjured myself that i could be sentenced to the maximum of i think it was seven years for each perjury. so i pled the fifth. we asked the judge to grant immunity and he just didn t do it. how can you kill somebody, how can you execute somebody and you have a state s key witness that wants to tell the truth and yet because it is not what the state wants, they re going to threaten her with perjury and send her back to prison. what kind of system is that? while duckett s appeal was severely weakened without gurley s recanted testimony, beth wells was still able to attack the prosecution s case starting with the tire tracks ....