Ralph Nader has qualified for the Idaho presidential ballot, after his supporters turned in nearly 7,000 certified signatures on Monday to the Idaho secretary of state. Four years ago, running as a write-in, Nader got less than 1 percent of the Idaho vote. Click below…
At least half a dozen Boise homes are burning tonight, under a bloody-red sunset that followed a super-strong windstorm late this afternoon. The burning homes are in the Sweetwater area in southeast Boise; some residents there said they heard a bang, then a field went…
The fingerprint expert followed much more dramatic testimony from three previous witnesses. Ernesto Medina, Anthony’s father, told of the day his son was abducted. “A terrible thing happened that day,” he told the court. He heard children screaming from outside his apartment, “A man’s got…
FBI Special Agent Mike Sotka testified in court today that Joseph Duncan, in a conversation with authorities at the Kootenai County Jail on July 19, 2005, told him he killed Carmen Cubias and Sammiejo White as his “first revenge.” “He told me that these two…
Mark Medina was just six years old when Joseph Duncan, a tall, thin Caucasian man in a white car, pulled up into the alley behind a neighbor’s house where he was playing with his 10-year-old brother, Anthony Martinez, and three other friends. Medina is now…
U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has ruled that evidence of previous, unadjudicated child murders can be presented to show Joseph Duncan’s future dangerousness. It doesn’t just show he’s a danger to children, the judge said. “The evidence … in this case is highly relevant in…
Today marks the start of the second phase of Joseph Duncan’s death penalty sentencing trial, the “selection” phase. It’s so called because while the jury decided in the first phase whether he qualified for the death penalty (they said yes), in this phase they decide…
Steve Groene, father of the victim, sat stoically in the courtroom, as he has through much of the case, as the verdicts were read finding Joseph Duncan eligible for the death penalty for the murder of 9-year-old Dylan. Groene, his black sunglasses tucked into the…
Joseph Duncan is eligible for the death penalty, a jury of eight men and four women found just now after just under two hours of deliberation. Now, the case will move into its second phase, in which prosecutors will offer evidence of victim impact and…
Duncan said he wasn’t telling the jury about the effect little Shasta had on him – prompting him to change his mind about killing her – because he thought he’d been redeemed. “This is not for my own salvation, but it’s for the hope of…
Joseph Duncan began his closing argument by addressing the jury directly, saying, “You people really don’t have any clue yet on the true heinousness of what I’ve done. … I’ll try to fill you in on some of the details.” When he went on the…
“I should actually thank the government for helping me get my eye for an eye, by showing you the evidence that you have seen, by showing you the videos,” Joseph Duncan told the jury, “… helping me to take away your heart and your innocence.…
In his closing statement, Joseph Duncan told the jury, “Everyone tends to lie to children. It’s not something that should be considered to weigh upon my own honesty. … I have been honest, I have been forthright.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson is a little over an hour into her closing argument for the first phase of Joseph Duncan’s death penalty sentencing trial, and is weaving a narrative that ties together the various, disparate pieces of evidence presented to the jury during…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesmanreview.com on Thursday’s developments in the Joseph Duncan sentencing trial, and here’s my sidebar on what happens next in the case. It was a difficult and distressing day in court, but one that, on balance, makes sense…
“The purpose of this eligibility phase is to determine whether the defendant is eligible for the death sentence, not whether a death sentence is imposed,” Judge Edward Lodge cautioned the jurors. The jurors must agree unanimously, beyond a reasonable doubt, on three items in order…
Federal prosecutors just rested their case for the first phase of the death penalty sentencing trial, and the judge asked the defendant, Joseph Duncan, if he’d like to call his first witness. “I intend to testify, but I do not have a witness,” Duncan responded.…
Before the jury came back in the room for the showing of the graphic videos, Joseph Duncan told the court he wanted to express strong objections to its showing. “I would just like to state for the record … that I strongly object,” he said.…
A beam from an old cabin in the Lolo National Forest, with a wire loop hanging from the beam, was wheeled into the courtroom this morning and displayed to jurors, along with another large case containing pieces of floorboard from the cabin. The floorboards, from…
Two weeks ago, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig said he wouldn’t be attending this year’s national Republican Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which is set for Sept. 1-4, prompting lots of chortling in the blogosphere about how the senator won’t be “returning to the scene of the…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter today released a review of Idaho State Tax Commission practices, prompted by a whistleblower’s allegations that the commission was signing illegal secret deals to excuse large, multistate corporations from paying millions in Idaho taxes. Otter’s review, conducted by accountant P. LaVern…
A Department of Defense expert on identifying skeletal remains just testified that the bone and tooth fragments recovered after 9-year-old Dylan’s body was burned were just tiny, whitened fragments. The 1,752 bone and tooth fragments weighed only a total of 423.6 grams, Dr. William Rodriguez…
Joseph Duncan has formally and vehemently objected to his first piece of prosecution evidence – and it’s the most grisly evidence presented in the case so far, a fair-sized piece of his victim’s skull, with 9-year-old Dylan’s lush, strawberry blond hair. “Objection overruled,” U.S. District…
An FBI firearms expert who extensively tested the murder weapon testified this morning that Joseph Duncan’s Browning 12-gauge shotgun could not fire accidentally, such as from being dropped, and that multiple tests showed that 5 pounds of pressure was required on the trigger to get…
As a child’s voice told of horrors suffered by herself and her 9-year-old brother, jurors listened intently, some clasping their hands over their mouths, other leaning forward or occasionally jotting a note on a clipboard. The victims’ father, Steve Groene, sat in the audience, where…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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