Federal prosecutors will call 90 witnesses over the coming weeks to show why Joseph Duncan should die for his 2005 crimes. Those witnesses, however, won’t include Duncan’s only surviving victim, 11-year-old Shasta Groene. Instead, Duncan and prosecutors filed an agreement with the court late Wednesday waiving Duncan’s right to cross-examine the girl and allowing two videotaped and four audiotaped interviews she gave to law enforcement officers after her rescue to serve as her testimony. For two of those interviews, Shasta, who was 8 when Duncan kidnapped and molested her after killing three members of her family, returned with police to the Montana campsite where Duncan held her and her brother Dylan for weeks and shot Dylan to death in front of her. You can read my full story here at spokesmanreview.com. Click here for the full transcript of Wednesday’s court proceedings, and here for Duncan’s opening statement.

Thursday opens with the calling of the first of the witnesses in the case, who prosecutors said in court on Wednesday will include the Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy who first discovered the carnage at the Groene family home in May of 2005.

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