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Huckleberries Online

County Wrestles w/Duncan Trial Costs

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?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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