Joseph Duncan

Joseph Edward Duncan has been visited 240 times since he was booked into the Kootenai County Jail six months ago, but apparently not a single family member has come to see the accused killer, according to jail visitor logs. Duncan's most frequent visitors are the attorneys who represent him in the triple-murder trial set for April 4. Public Defender John Adams and others from his staff have met with Duncan almost daily.

Accused killer Joseph Edward Duncan's mental state should be considered in his defense, a move that would overturn nearly a quarter-century of Idaho law, his lawyer argued in a motion filed Tuesday. John Adams, Kootenai County chief public defender, asked the court to declare Idaho's 1982 repeal of the insanity defense unconstitutional. Adams argued that the state treats mentally ill people differently under the law and that it disregards the wisdom of 46 other states, the federal government and at least 100 other nations.

"Massive pretrial publicity" and community hostility mean murder suspect Joseph Edward Duncan III cannot get a fair trial in Kootenai County, his attorneys said Tuesday in applying for a change of venue. Public Defender John Adams also filed a motion to suppress statements Duncan allegedly made following his arrest and another motion saying the state's 1982 repeal of the insanity defense was unconstitutional.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas is asking that Shasta Groene be allowed to testify against Joseph Duncan without facing the accused killer in a courtroom. The girl, now 9, is the lone survivor of an attack last May in which her mother, 13-year-old brother and her mother's boyfriend were bludgeoned to death. She allegedly was taken from the scene by Duncan, along with her brother, Dylan, and held at a remote Montana campsite for weeks.

BOISE – Any registered sex offender who commits a second sex crime would get a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison under legislation being proposed by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. If the repeat offender had been designated as a "violent sexual predator," the mandatory sentence would be life.

The estates of two people who prosecutors allege were killed by Joseph Edward Duncan III sued Becker County, Minn., on Monday for releasing the registered sex offender a few weeks before Brenda Groene and Mark McKenzie were slain in their Idaho home. Authorities contend Duncan killed the couple so he could kidnap Shasta Groene, 8, and Dylan Groene, 9, to abuse sexually.

Just days before Shasta Groene was found, the lead detective in the case began working with a psychic investigator hired by the girl's father. Shasta was found before tips that psychic Noreen Renier provided could be used, but Renier said she's confident that she had "nailed it" and that she saw where Joseph Duncan had been holding the Groene children hostage.

Joseph Edward Duncan's attorneys have been given three more months to prepare a defense for the suspected murderer. Public defender John Adams said his office needed more time to sort through the evidence in the case, which includes 17,000 pages; 125 CDs, DVDs and cassettes; and a 200 gigabyte hard drive.

Joseph Duncan's attorneys are asking for more time to prepare for their client's murder and kidnapping trial. Public defender John Adams has filed a motion to vacate the scheduled Jan. 17 trial and instead start no earlier than April. In court papers filed last week, Adams wrote that his office has yet to receive all of the evidence needed to prepare a defense for Duncan.