July 11, 2011 in News, Idaho

9th Circuit orders Duncan back into court in Idaho

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Terry Pierson photo

Joseph Duncan as he appeared in April 2011 in an Indio, Calif., courtroom.
(Full-size photo)

BOISE – The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ordered convicted child-killer Joseph Duncan back into court in Idaho, saying a federal judge should have ordered a competency hearing before allowing Duncan to waive his appeal of his death sentence.

The high court ordered U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge to hold a “retrospective” competency hearing, exploring whether Duncan was competent in November 2008 when he told Lodge he didn’t want to appeal his triple death sentence for the kidnapping, torture and murder of a North Idaho boy. If he’s found competent after the hearing, the death sentence would go forward.

If not, the federal court in Idaho would have to hold another hearing to determine whether Duncan was competent when he waived his right to an attorney and insisted on representing himself in the Idaho case. If the court then finds Duncan wasn’t competent to do that, it would have to “vacate defendant’s sentence and convene a new penalty phase hearing with defendant properly represented.” That could mean a rerun of Duncan’s entire sentencing trial in federal court in Boise for his deadly 2005 attack on the Groene family at Wolf Lodge, near Coeur d’Alene.

U.S. Attorney for Idaho Wendy Olson noted that every court has found Duncan competent. The latest was in a California child-murder case in which a jury and judge determined Duncan was competent in 2009 after weeks of expert testimony.

“Our position throughout the proceedings was that Duncan was competent,” Olson said Monday. “That’s the position we asserted. … But there was no actual hearing in court where witnesses were called and cross-examination was conducted. The Court of Appeals is saying as a procedural matter the district court should have done that.”

Lodge had ordered two extensive mental evaluations that delayed Duncan’s death penalty sentencing trial for months. But the judge never held a hearing on the issue in open court. As a result, all of Duncan’s mental evaluations remained secret.

James Cohen, a law professor at Fordham University and an expert on the death penalty and mental competency, said, “There’s no reason for the judge in Idaho to keep all this stuff secret – there’s just no reason at all.”

Said Cohen, “The only justification would be to protect the privacy of the defendant.” But, he said, “He lost that when he was indicted for this particular crime.”

Secrecy was extensive in the sentencing trial, with numerous documents sealed from public view, leading to several legal challenges by the media. Much of the secrecy came because the case involved a surviving child victim, but it also covered all issues of Duncan’s mental competency.

Duncan murdered three members of the Groene household in May 2005 in order to kidnap and molest the family’s two youngest children. His three death sentences are for the kidnapping, torture and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene, whose younger sister, 8-year-old Shasta, survived. The crimes also brought Duncan nine life terms in prison.

The California case, the murder of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez, brought him his 10th and 11th life terms.

Cohen said, “The information available to the trial judge, including but not limited to the evaluations, was more than sufficient to require him to hold a (competency) hearing.”

The law professor said there are “at least two benefits” to a public competency hearing. The first, he said, is that psychologists, psychiatrists or other experts “might be able to learn something from his mental illness that could head off others.”

“And two, it’s very important that our system work right – and we don’t punish people that are mentally ill to that extreme,” Cohen said.

The murders and children’s disappearance launched the biggest investigative effort in Kootenai County’s history, at one point involving more than 100 FBI personnel and more than 80 investigators from several other agencies. Duncan was arrested after being spotted with Shasta Groene at a Coeur d’Alene restaurant seven weeks after his murderous crime spree began.

Duncan, 42 at the time, was a federal fugitive and a Tacoma native who had spent much of his adult life in Washington state prisons for sex crimes against children. He was on the run from a child molestation charge in Minnesota when he drove past the Groene home on Interstate 90 east of Coeur d’Alene and saw the two youngsters playing outside.

In court, Duncan said he was on the prowl for child victims and had considered several others before spotting the Groene children.

No date has yet been set for the mental competency hearing in Idaho.

Duncan remains on Death Row at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.

19 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  liberal_in_right_wing_land on July 11 at 11:14 a.m.

  I am in a minority with my fellow liberals, but I am 110% in favor of the death penalty and wish this worthless piece of garbage who is just wasting everyones precious oxygen by still being alive should have been killed years ago in a public square for all to see…..just like they did in the Middle Ages.

• 

  leekinny on July 11 at 11:34 a.m.

  Amnesty International USA’s Capital Punishment page…

  http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts

  Pax Christi USA on Capital Punishment…

  http://paxchristiusa.org/?s=capital+punishment

• 

  MrNatural on July 11 at 11:41 a.m.

  Good Lord!

  I will never understand our systems of laws…this seems so contemptible at this juncture…one could surmise that any vile predator like Duncan in some way must be nuts and if this serves only to defer the death sentence then why have a death penalty at all.

• 

  krosnicki on July 11 at 11:57 a.m.

  The reporter has sanitized this story. Actually, the creep watched the family from across I-90 for sever days or weeks, learning their every move, before the killings and kidnappings. He also used the two children that he kidnapped as his personal sex slaves, and recorded all or most of his reprehensible actions on a laptop. He brutally tortured and killed the young boy. If I am wrong here I stand to be corrected.

  I am against the death penalty in most cases, due to the costs and endless appeals as well as the fact that the victims’ families tend to suffer for years while waiting for the death of the one who grieved them. I favor life in prison without the amenities, isolation, no exercise, sparse meals, no TV, weights, reading, or religious conversion opportunities. or endless appeals There have also been numerous cases where people are wrongfully convicted, spend years on death row or face life in prison only to be exonerated by new evidence or DNA. In this case, however, I favor a public hanging due to the overwhelming evidence and immense cruelty this sorry excuse for a human being inflicted on the victims, those alive as well as those whose lives have ended at the hands of this animal.

• 

  boknows on July 11 at 12:09 p.m.

  kill that murderin sob, better yet bring him back to cda , wii tie his ass to a pole at the fairground and charge a buck a shot with weapon of choice, we’ll give him transfusions to so he can
  SUFFER longer, he should have already been executed

• 

  sunshine52 on July 11 at 12:11 p.m.

  If ever the death penalty was appropriate, it is for ending the life of this worthless piece of human garbage. I don’t really care if he was “competent to waive his right to appeal” or not. He waived his right for appeals when he brutally tortured and murdered an entire family. There is not even a question about whether or not he did it! I for one resent having to spend tax dollars on keeping this monster alive!!

• 

  philipgregory on July 11 at 12:38 p.m.

  Although judges have often made very poor decisions (US supreme court!), in this case I think it is the prosecutor’s office that failed to ‘dot the i’s and cross the t’s’.

  I guess either way it is the too-often failure of the justice system in this country.

• 

  misjustice on July 11 at 1:32 p.m.

  He didn’t competently waive his rights and Casey Anthony is innocent! Bizzaro!

• 

  ericdx on July 11 at 2:59 p.m.

  If ever there was a case for the statement “He needs killing” Duncan is the poster child for it. Please, someone explain how he is “selectively” going to be competent for all of his other cases, except this one? The Appellate Court is WRONG!

  Just hang this piece of garbage and be done with it (or better yet, keelhaul or draw and quarter him.) He will never suffer as much as that family and that child.

  This is definitely one time that Curel and Unusual Punishment would be justified.

• 

  ericdx on July 11 at 3:00 p.m.

  I meant to type Cruel

• 

  misjustice on July 11 at 3:23 p.m.

  Release this pos into the general prison population, in Terre Haute, and let his peers render some jailhouse justice. Problem solved…

• 

  greenlibertarian on July 11 at 4:06 p.m.

  I am against the death penalty simply because I don’t trust the system to NOT make mistakes, even tho, yes, I understand, there can be iron-clad cases like Duncan.

  I would prefer an alternative where harsh but not cruel and unusual punishment is meted out for convictions that would have drawn the death penalty.

  I agree with this, mostly:
  I favor life in prison without the amenities, isolation, no exercise, sparse meals, no TV, weights, reading, or religious conversion opportunities. or endless appeals

  No possibility of parole, of course, and I would allow very limited reading materials and some sort of religious expression or study of such.

• 

  The_Seer on July 11 at 4:24 p.m.

  The death penalty should be opposed by citizens because they cannot convey powers to the government they themselves don’t possess.

  Why is there even a question of Duncan’s competency? Who in their right mind commits the atrocities he’s been convicted of?

• 

  crazyivan44 on July 11 at 6:04 p.m.

  I agree with The_Seer…sell tickets throughout the county and release him to the mob at the fairgrounds and let the citizens do to this abomination what they may

• 

  ericdx on July 11 at 6:15 p.m.

  Frankly, Innocent by reason if insanity is a crock, as is being mentally incompetent to stand trial. If the person was insane, and can be cured, then what is left for them but to end themselves for what they did when they were “sick.” If they can’t be cured, well, we shoot mad dogs, don’t we?

  I wish I could take credit for this line of thought, which I totally agree with, but the author of these words was the late Robert A. Heinlein, in his 1960 Hugo Award winning book, Starship Troopers. It has a very interesting idea for the criminal justice system. Some would say it is cruel, but it seems that there was a lot less crime when there was a lot less perqs in prison. The quote comes from a situation that is suprisingly similar to what Duncan did.

• 

  The_Seer on July 12 at 1:55 p.m.

  ericdx: That “novel” is on the reading list for officers deploying to Afghanistan. Justice, huh? Reads more like eugenics.

• 

  Hcklbery on July 13 at 3:28 p.m.

  When the guilt is as CERTAIN as is in this case AND the crime as HEINOUS as this case is then there really does need to be laws in place that removes eligibility to the appeals system and puts the convicted on a fast track to the death chamber.

  Maybe have a tribunal that examines the case top to bottom then if no doubt of guilt is sufficiently raised then immediate carrying out the sentence of death ?

  There really needs to be a fast track procedure when the guilt is as certain as this and the crime so heinous.

• 

  robert1964 on July 18 at 1:01 p.m.

  this sicko knows the loopholes better then we do - all this piece of garbage is doing - is prolonging everything at 70,000 a year a piece to house these thugs - not counting parol - court cost - and the chance they do it again ? execute to set as an example and swiftly - not 10 years down the road - 30 days after a verdict will do - or if there is already evidence beyond a reasonable doubt 100 percent - dont even give them a trial - i am so sick of this system were now the criminals have more rights then regular people - while we get our houses forclosed - a burglar can steal what he wants - and we have to investigate ourselves ? us people need to liturally over throw these bums in office and get some people in there that will do something - not the other way around - we all should impeach these politicions state by state - impeach before they shut down

• 

  robert1964 on July 18 at 1:08 p.m.

  oh yeah - times 70,000 a year times how many years a violent thug criminal is locked up not counting parol or court cost