Two different polls were released yesterday in Idaho’s U.S. Senate race, the hot race for the open seat created by the retirement of Sen. Larry Craig. But the results were so different as to suggest they were for different races.Independent candidate Rex Rammell released results…
Idaho state employees who become seriously ill and go on disability now will be laid off after 12 weeks, rather than the previous six months, the Otter Administration has decided. The unilateral change in rules for state workers, one of several implemented by Gov. Butch…
Here’s a link to the video of today’s arguments in Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport men’s room sex sting, and here's a link to my full story in today's Spokesman-Review. In…
Attorneys for Idaho Sen. Larry Craig have just finished urging a three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let Craig withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct charges in a 2007 airport men’s room sex sting. “He looked in the crack. … He…
Independent U.S. Senate candidate Rex Rammell is none too happy after being accused – unsuccessfully – of submitting invalid signatures in his bid to qualify for the ballot. “If you’re gonna accuse somebody of fraud and perjury, you better be able to back it up,”…
The Idaho U.S. Senate candidate who legally changed his name to Pro-Life says he’s not a single-issue candidate. “That’s the real falsehood, that I’m a one-issue candidate – I’m not,” he told me in an interview. “I’ll take on any issue. I try to determine…
Final sentencing for Joseph Duncan in federal court in Boise on the seven remaining non-capital federal charges against him has been moved back to Nov. 3, from the previously scheduled Oct. 15 date. The court announced the change “in order to facilitate the completion of…
It’s time for me to take a week off; I’ll return to work on Sept. 8th. I plan to do some windsurfing and mountain biking, spend time with family, clean my house and get some rest. I still hope to speak with jurors, perhaps after…
Joseph Duncan’s 10th grade biology teacher in Tacoma, Wash. has been writing to him, providing him with a religious article and telling him that he feels “very sorry for not only his victims but him as well.” “I told him that a lady who I…
S-R reporter Rich Roesler found few of Joseph Duncan’s relatives willing to comment yesterday as a federal jury in Idaho sentenced him to death, but a woman in Tacoma who was involved with Duncan’s father – the two share a son – and first met…
Joseph Duncan still must appear again before Judge Lodge in Boise for sentencing on the other seven charges to which he’s pleaded guilty. Today, he was sentenced to death for each of the three capital crimes. For the other offenses, for kidnapping and molesting Dylan…
S-R reporter Meghann Cuniff saw the emotional scene in the elevator lobby of the federal courthouse, where tearful jurors shook the hand of Steven Groene, father of the victim, while he thanked the jurors. “You made the right decision – don’t ever think you didn’t,”…
U.S. Attorney Tom Moss, speaking outside the federal courthouse in Boise, said, "The jury speaks the mind of the community. I think by this verdict today they have given voice to the victims and the people who were injured by the circumstances in this case."Moss…
Darlene Torres, Dylan and Shasta’s grandmother, was the first relative to come out of the courthouse. She said, “I am so glad this is over. Justice has been served. It’s been a long three years.” She said when she looked at Duncan in the courtroom,…
The jury has reached a verdict, after three hours of deliberation, and the court will go back in session at 2:15 Boise time to hear it.
The jury pool – 12 jurors and three alternates – dropped down from 15 to 14 yesterday, as one alternate juror, an elderly gentleman, was gone. Judge Edward Lodge said today that that alternate juror was “excused by the court for good cause.” He wasn’t…
During the prosecution’s closing statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan illustrated some of her points by playing snippets of audio of Shasta Groene’s statements to police just after her rescue from Duncan in 2005. In one, Shasta, just outside the Denny’s restaurant where she was…
U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has just finished reading a half-hour’s worth of instructions to the jurors; closing arguments are up next. “You are called upon to make a reasoned, moral judgment,” the judge told the jurors. “Use your experience, judgment and sense of justice.”…
With heartfelt testimony from the father of murdered Dylan Groene, prosecutors wrapped up their case Tuesday in the federal death penalty sentencing trial for admitted killer Joseph Duncan, and U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge set closing arguments for 9 a.m. today, Boise time, after which…
The testimony has come to a close in Joseph Duncan’s federal death penalty sentencing trial without the sole surviving victim, now-11-year-old Shasta Groene, having to take the stand and see her attacker again. The prosecution and defense had reached an agreement regarding Shasta’s testimony in…
Among the odd, stray items raised in today’s evidence: Duncan’s girlfriend in Seattle apparently had a husband and two young daughters. In a monthly report from May of 1996 from Duncan’s parole officer, Sandy Silver, presented in court today, a note at the bottom says,…
Steve Groene resisted when Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan referred to his murdered son by initials as “D.G.” “I would like to state, I’m not comfortable diminishing my two boys’ names down to initials,” he told the court. The court proceedings have used only initials…
With heartfelt testimony from Steve Groene, father of the murdered child, the prosecution has wrapped up its victim-impact testimony. “At this point, the United States rests,” U.S. Attorney Tom Moss told the court. Judge Edward Lodge then asked Duncan to call his first witness, but…
Nine-year-old Dylan Groene loved to play with Matchbox cars, teased his classmates by keeping a bottle of cheap cologne in his desk that he occasionally put on, and was “having a good year” in the third grade when he disappeared, his 3rd grade teacher at…
The victim-impact testimony has started in Joseph Duncan’s sentencing trial. Little Dylan’s aunt, Brandy Hoagland, her voice breaking, said, “He was really affectionate, he was just a little teddy bear. … It’s been pretty traumatic. It’s just a huge hole in our heart and an…
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