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A federal jury begun deliberating the fate of convicted child killer Joseph Edward Duncan III on Wednesday after he declined to plead for his life. “This defendant is dangerous. He is a predator who takes pride in his work,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan said. “He earned this day. His actions … call out for the death penalty.” Duncan, who pleaded guilty in December to 10 federal charges involving the kidnapping of two northern Idaho children and the murder of one of them in May 2005, offered no response to prosecutors’ call for his death. -- SNIP -- “I have...

Joseph Duncan is eligible for the death penalty, a jury of eight men and four women found after just under two hours of deliberation. The jury's decision today is the first part of the proceeding in which jurors will decide whether Duncan will die or spend the rest of his life in prison for the torture killing of 9-year-old Dylan Groene. Duncan pleaded guilty in December to 10 federal charges, three of which can carry the death penalty: kidnapping resulting in death, sexual exploitation of a child resulting in death, and using a firearm during and in relation to a...

Joseph Edward Duncan III is a sadistic, detail-oriented rapist and killer who went on a GPS-guided quest to abduct and rape children before he settled on a Coeur d'Alene family, U.S. Attorney Tom Moss told a federal jury Wednesday. Duncan, who is representing himself at the sentencing hearing, told the jury that most of Moss' description of events was "fair and accurate." He also said he would testify "to clarify things." -- SNIP -- The six-woman, nine-man jury (12 jurors and three alternates) mostly kept their composure as Moss detailed the grisly crimes against Dylan and Shasta. Some jurors wrinkled...

BOISE, Idaho — For the next several weeks, fifteen Idahoans will review one of the state's most gruesome crimes, deciding whether it was so heinous and depraved that it warrants the death penalty. And Joseph Edward Duncan III - the convicted killer at the middle of it all - may decline to offer any substantial defense. The death penalty hearing, which will have 12 jurors and three alternates, begins here Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge. Duncan isn't new to the legal system. A convicted pedophile originally from Tacoma, Wash., his past is littered with arrests and prison...

BOISE - U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has issued an order declaring Joseph Duncan competent to proceed in his death penalty sentencing hearings, rejecting a motion from defense attorneys to declare the convicted killer mentally incompetent. The judge’s decision ends nearly three months of haggling between the parties in the case over the killer’s mental state, which was kicked off when he requested to sideline his legal team and instead act as his own attorney. Lodge then ordered a mental evaluation to confirm that Duncan was mentally competent to waive his constitutional right to an attorney. Before it was completed,...

More than two dozen prospective jurors were waiting to be questioned, Joseph Duncan was in court, and attorneys and the judge were assembled. But Tuesday’s jury selection proceedings were delayed after the defense objected to proceeding without a ruling on whether Duncan will serve as his own attorney in his death penalty hearings — and the government concurred. Pending is a mental evaluation to verify Duncan’s competency. “We believe that it would be an infringement on Mr. Duncan’s right to continue pro se (representing himself) if we were to continue questioning of jurors,” defense attorney Mark Larranaga told the court....

A group of 325 potential jurors - some from as far away as Hailey and Twin Falls - filled a room Monday in the Boise Centre on The Grove and got a glimpse of the man whose fate will be decided by a dozen Idahoans. Federal court officials commandeered the convention center to find 12 people and three alternates who can do a fair job of deciding whether confessed killer Joseph Duncan III should be executed for kidnapping two Coeur d'Alene children and killing one of them - a nine-year-old boy. Duncan sat unshackled and dressed in an orange prison...

Joseph Duncan has confessed to killing three children in Washington and California in 1996 and '97, according to federal court documents filed this morning. The documents also reveal that Shasta Groene of Coeur d'Alene saw Duncan abuse and murder her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, in 2005. Federal prosecutors today filed the notice of intent to seek the death penalty for Dylan’s murder. That Shasta witnessed her brother’s murder by torture, and Duncan’s confessions to the other killings, were listed as aggravating factors warranting the death penalty. Duncan was charged in federal court last week for his crimes against the Groene children....

Exclusive Interview with Steve Groene, Father of Shasta Groene. http://www.krem.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.krem.com/local_news/030106_groeneinterview. Also here is a link to Citizens for one strike law, which also has a poll. http://www.citizensforaonestrikelaw.org/.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Family members of victims say they don’t want the state to make a deal with Joseph Duncan III that would let him avoid the death penalty, even though a trial could be difficult for lone survivor Shasta Groene. Duncan’s public defender, John Adams, said last week a plea agreement would be easier on Shasta because she wouldn’t have to testify at trial, but could only be made if the state didn’t seek the death penalty against Duncan. Duncan, 42, has pleaded innocent to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping in...

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Despite a lengthy record as a violent sexual predator of children, Joseph Edward Duncan III was always able to make friends who paid his bills and lobbied for his early release from prison, The Spokesman-Review reported Friday. ADVERTISEMENT Duncan, 42, is jailed without bail on charges he beat three people to death in a scheme to kidnap two children for the purposes of sexual gratification. .... "He is open, honest and eager to move on with his life," one such supporter, David Woelfert of Lynnwood, Wash., wrote to parole officials in 1993. "He is no threat...

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago Convicted sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan bragged to his 8-year-old captive during more than six weeks on the run, telling her how he used a shotgun and hammer to kill her family after staking out their home for days, court documents show. Shasta Groene remembered it all and has been providing authorities with details that are building a strong case against Duncan. Duncan was charged Tuesday with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping in the deaths of Shasta's mother Brenda Groene, 40, her brother Slade,...

Not posted yet... Girl was missing from Idaho, found alive