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News >  Idaho

Tapes show Duncan with kids at campsite

BOISE – Videotapes of Shasta and Dylan Groene clowning around at a Montana campsite with their abductor, Joseph Duncan, were played to the jury in Duncan’s federal death sentence trial Friday. Taken out of context, the footage plays like home videos of a family vacation. The video, however, has an ominous undercurrent.
News >  Idaho

Details revealed in tape of Shasta

BOISE – One of the big mysteries surrounding Joseph Duncan’s murderous crime spree three years ago was resolved Thursday as the frightened, tearful voice of an 8-year-old girl explained to rescuers why after nearly two months of captivity her abductor had brought her back. “He was going to take me home,” Shasta Groene told Coeur d’Alene police Officer Shane Avriett in an audio recording from July 2, 2005, that was played for jurors deciding whether Duncan should be executed or sentenced to life in prison.
News >  Spokane

Spokane music school among sites Duncan tracked via GPS

Before Joseph Duncan kidnapped and sexually abused two children near Coeur d’Alene in 2005, he stalked a musical activity school for preschoolers on Spokane’s South Hill, authorities revealed Wednesday. The confessed killer used a Global Positioning System device to electronically record the geographic coordinates of Kindermusik, a private music-motion school located near 14th and Adams, a federal death-penalty jury was told Wednesday in Boise. The jury will decide if Duncan lives the rest of his life in prison or is put to death.
News >  Idaho

Shasta won’t have to testify

BOISE – Jurors frowned, pursed their lips, some reddened visibly and one gasped out loud as U.S. Attorney Tom Moss detailed the horrific tale of Joseph Duncan’s crimes, intricately planned in advance, culminating in the sexual torture and murder of a 9-year-old boy and an attempt to burn beyond recognition every piece of his body. Federal prosecutors will call 90 witnesses over the coming weeks to show why Duncan should die for his 2005 crimes. Those witnesses, however, won’t include Duncan’s only surviving victim, 11-year-old Shasta Groene. Instead, Duncan and prosecutors filed an agreement with the court late Wednesday waiving Duncan’s right to cross-examine the girl and allowing two videotaped and four audiotaped interviews she gave to law enforcement officers after her rescue to serve as her testimony.
News >  Idaho

Shasta might not take stand

BOISE – Shasta Groene, the only survivor of Joseph Duncan’s murderous rampage in 2005, may not have to testify against her attacker after all. On the eve of today’s opening statements in Duncan’s death penalty sentencing trial in federal court, lawyers on both sides hinted that a deal is in the works.
News >  Idaho

Duncan needs just one juror to avoid death

BOISE – Here’s how high the stakes are in the jury selection under way in the Joseph Duncan case: If one juror objects in any of three different votes, Duncan would be spared the death penalty. That’s what happened in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called “20th hijacker” from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He’s serving a life sentence without possibility of release at the federal supermax prison in Colorado after a juror opposed the death penalty on the final vote in his federal trial.
News >  Idaho

Duncan admits to disturbing nature of videotape

BOISE – Joseph Duncan, acting as his own attorney, acknowledged Friday that a videotape he made of himself torturing and abusing a 9-year-old North Idaho boy he later murdered is so disturbing that it could leave some viewers emotionally scarred. “This video has a potential of victimizing people,” Duncan told U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge as he sought the removal of a prospective juror who indicated he could have trouble watching the graphic videotape, in part because of a family member’s past abuse. “And anybody who’s sensitive, I’m concerned about that.”
News >  Idaho

Judge lets Duncan question would-be jurors

BOISE – Confessed killer Joseph Duncan insisted on taking over questioning his potential jurors Thursday, sidelining his standby attorneys, but then refused to ask any questions. The move, which U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge urged Duncan to reconsider, left one legal observer befuddled.
News >  Idaho

Lawyers stuck with Duncan

BOISE – Joseph Duncan’s standby attorneys told a federal judge Wednesday that the confessed killer is so irrational they can’t ethically follow his wishes, and they asked to withdraw from the case. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge refused.
News >  Spokane

Shasta’s testimony would close courtroom

BOISE – A federal judge has ordered the courtroom closed if confessed killer Joseph Duncan’s surviving victim takes the stand in his death penalty sentencing trial, even though the 11-year-old girl likely would testify from another room by closed-circuit television. “The Court finds the compelling interests in protecting the minor victim from further harm and embarrassment significantly outweighs the First Amendment interests of the public,” U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge wrote in an order issued Tuesday.
News >  Spokane

Duncan lawyers must question jurors

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has ruled that Joseph Duncan’s standby attorneys must act on his behalf to question prospective jurors, if he asks them to do so. Duncan’s attorneys, who are designated as standby counsel because he’s elected to represent himself, had argued that by taking on that role, they would violate his right to self-representation. Duncan then asked that the judge take on the questioning of jurors himself. Lodge declined, in an order issued Monday, and cited three U.S. Supreme Court decisions to back up his ruling that it’s an appropriate role for standby lawyers.
News >  Idaho

Duncan’s new role seen as liability

BOISE – When Joseph Duncan takes over as his own attorney in his upcoming death penalty sentencing hearings, it’ll change the nature of the proceedings, experts say – and make the confessed multiple murderer much more likely to get the death penalty. “The problem with defendants representing themselves is it puts the spotlight on the defendant, and that’s not always the best defense strategy,” said University of Idaho law professor Richard Seamon.
News >  Idaho

Duncan asks for access to his computer files

BOISE – Killer Joseph Duncan wants access to the computer files – including images, video, audio and documents – from the laptop that was confiscated from him when he was arrested with Shasta Groene, and from another computer confiscated from his North Dakota apartment. Duncan, who is acting as his own attorney in his capital sentencing trial, filed a handwritten document with the court requesting access to the files, saying he needs them “in preparing my defense.” It was Duncan’s first official filing since he won his bid to represent himself.
News >  Idaho

News media seek an open courtroom

BOISE – Attorneys for The Spokesman-Review and an array of news organizations in Idaho and Eastern Washington filed arguments in federal court Friday in favor of keeping open court proceedings in the Joseph Duncan case. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge is considering closing the courtroom for the testimony of 11-year-old Shasta Groene and the showing of a videotape Duncan made of his abuse of 9-year-old Dylan Groene, whom Duncan admits murdering.
News >  Idaho

Duncan cleared to represent himself

BOISE – Joseph Duncan won his bid Monday to act as his own attorney in his sentencing hearings, sidelining his expert legal team in what U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge called an “unwise” move. Asked by the judge if he had any reservations, Duncan said, “I’m not a perfect person, and I make mistakes sometimes. ... My only reservation is that I’m a human being.”
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