Federal Jury Sentences Joseph Duncan to Death for the Kidnapping and Murder of 9-Year-Old Dylan Groene
It was the first death sentence in Idaho's federal court. Duncan represented himself, and the jury heard his confessions to three other child killings.
Published
Joseph Duncan had already admitted kidnapping Dylan and Shasta Groene from their Idaho home in 2005 and killing Dylan. On August 27, 2008, a federal jury in Boise unanimously voted for the death penalty on all three capital counts, the first death sentence returned in Idaho's federal court.
Duncan pleaded guilty to all 10 federal charges in December 2007 and chose to represent himself in the penalty phase, which began on August 13, after the court rejected his lawyers' challenge to his competence. To show his future dangerousness, prosecutors presented three other child killings that had not been tried in court. FBI Special Agent Mike Sotka testified that in a July 2005 jail interview, Duncan described killing Carmen Cubias, 9, and Sammiejo White, 11, in Seattle in 1996, and Anthony Martinez, 10, in Riverside County, California, in 1997. Shasta, then 8 and the only survivor of the attack on her family, had told investigators what Duncan said about those crimes.
The court sentenced Duncan to death. He had also pleaded guilty in Idaho state court to murdering Shasta and Dylan's mother, Brenda Groene, their brother Slade and her fiancé, Mark McKenzie, with sentencing deferred until the federal case ended. Jurors who saw the evidence were offered counseling.
An FBI agent testified that Duncan described killing Carmen Cubias and Sammiejo White in 1996, while the King County Sheriff's Office said at the time that the case remained an open investigation.
Sources
- United States v. Duncan, No. 08-99031 (9th Cir. July 11, 2011), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Duncan jurors offered counseling, The Spokesman-Review
- Killings of three other kids recounted, The Spokesman-Review
Related News
- July 2, 2005: Missing Girl Shasta Groene Is Found Alive at an Idaho Denny's, and Sex Offender Joseph Duncan Is Arrested
- December 3, 2007: Joseph Duncan Pleads Guilty to All 10 Federal Charges in the Kidnapping of Two Idaho Children and Killing of One
- March 15, 2011: Joseph Duncan Pleads Guilty to the 1997 Murder of 10-Year-Old Anthony Martinez in Riverside County
- March 28, 2021: Joseph Edward Duncan III Dies of Brain Cancer on Federal Death Row, Never Executed for Dylan Groene’s Murder