Murderer gets death sentence
2008-08-28 11:46
Spokane - A federal jury in Idaho
on Wednesday sentenced Joseph Duncan to death for killing a nine-year-old boy in front of his younger sister after
kidnapping and sexually abusing him.
A 12-member jury in Boise, Idaho handed down the sentence
in a unanimous vote after a two-week trial during which
prosecutors presented gruesome evidence that painted Duncan,
45, as a predator who carefully planned the kidnapping, sexual
abuse, torture and murder of his young victims.
"I haven't seen anything that comes close to the horrendous
facts that were presented in this case," US Attorney Tom Moss
said after the sentencing. "Absolutely, justice was served."
Duncan pleaded guilty in December to federal charges
surrounding the 2005 kidnapping and molestation of siblings
Shasta and Dylan Groene from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and the
torture and murder of Dylan.
Jurors were shown video recorded by Duncan as he sexually
abused and tortured the boy, hanging him from a wire noose.
Eventually, the video showed Duncan shooting Dylan in the
abdomen, wounding him, before shooting him in the head at
point-blank range, while Shasta watched.
The federal case focused mostly on the crimes against
Dylan, but Duncan previously pleaded guilty in state court to
the bludgeoning deaths of the children's mother, Brenda Groene,
her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, and their older brother, Slade
Groene, on the night Shasta and Dylan were kidnapped.
Duncan also faces a first-degree murder charge in Riverside
County, California for the 1997 kidnapping and murder of
Anthony Martinez, who was 10 when he was forced into a car at
knifepoint by a man asking for help finding his cat.
The boy's body was found two weeks later, his hands and
mouth bound with duct tape. A partial fingerprint on the tape
matched Duncan's prints.
Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said on Monday
he planned to extradite Duncan to California regardless of the
outcome of the federal trial.
Duncan, who represented himself during the Boise trial, has
confessed to Martinez's murder as well as the 1996 slayings of
Carmen Cubias, nine, and Sammiejo White, 11, in Seattle.
Prosecutors presented evidence from those crimes during the
federal trial to convince jurors of the threat Duncan would
pose should he have been allowed to live.
Death sentences are less common in federal cases.
From 1996 to 2006, federal juries issued 40 death
sentences, according to the Death Penalty Information Center,
compared to 704 death sentences handed down in state courts
during that period.
- Reuters