Joseph Edward Duncan III stands in court today in Indio, Calif. Duncan convicted of killing a couple and two children in Idaho was sentenced to life in prison for torturing and killing a 10-year-old boy in California in 1997. Duncan was sentenced to two life terms in Riverside County Superior Court for the murder of Anthony Martinez, who was abducted as he played with his brother near their Beaumont home. The boy's battered, nude body was later found in the desert. Duncan, who had pleaded guilty and waived his right to an appeal in an agreement with prosecutors, was sentenced to two life terms because of a prior criminal conviction before Anthony's murder, District Attorney spokesman John Hall said. Story here. (AP Photo/ The Press-Enterprise, Terry Pierson)

Item: California murder trial for Joseph Duncan delayed one year/John Asbury, Riverside Press Enterpris

More Info: In court last week, Duncan, who is representing himself, told the court he would not be ready to go to trial by November, if at all. He said he still needed thousands of pages of evidence from the district attorney’s office that have not been turned over. Riverside County Superior Court Judge David Downing said he wanted the case to go to trial no later than September 2011. He ordered prosecutors to have the evidence given to Duncan by January or February.

Question: Will Joseph Duncan ever be put to death for his sex crimes against children and the murder of Shasta Groene’s family?

The death penalty trial of Joseph Edward Duncan III already has cost Riverside County more than $167,000, and legal experts say the murder trial could total several million dollars by the time it’s completed. Since January 2009, the Riverside County district attorney’s office has been prosecuting Duncan, who has already been sentenced to death for murders in Idaho, in the 1997 killing, torture and sexual assault of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez of Beaumont. The district attorney extradited Duncan, 47, to face murder charges in Indio for Anthony’s death after Duncan was convicted of murdering a family of four in Idaho. He was sentenced by an Idaho federal and state court to three death sentences and nine life terms/John Asbury, Press Tribune. More here. (H/T: Melissa Luck/KXLY).

Question: I consider the death penalty trial for Duncan in Riverside County, Calif., to be a waste of money, since he’s already facing the death penalty for the Groene-McKenzie murders. Do you?