death penalty news August 24, 2005
IDAHO: Idaho prosecutors to seek death for man accused in Groene slayings Prosecutors in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, will seek the death penalty against convicted sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan III for his alleged role in the death of three people in their rural Idaho home. In an e-mail to Courttv.com, Kootenai County prosecuting attorney Bill Douglas said he intended to file capital charges against Duncan after his arraignment Tuesday on three counts of kidnapping and three counts of murder for holding Brenda Groene, her 13-year-old son, Slade, and her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, in their home before brutally bludgeoning them to death. Duncan will likely face separate federal charges for abducting Groene's young children, Shasta and Dylan, and murdering Dylan in Montana. "If this isn't an egregious example of when the death penalty should be applied, I don't know what is," said Norm Early, former Denver district attorney and media spokesman for the National Association of District Attorneys. "If we give this guy a break, then the next guy who just kills two people, how can we justify it for him?" Adding to the gravity of the charges, Early said, was Shasta's alleged statement that she and Dylan witnessed their older brother, Slade, stumbling out of the home with a hammer in his head before Duncan pulled him back in. "That's coming from an 8-year-old girl," Early said, speaking on behalf of Douglas. "No one should have to see that." Evidence that Duncan allegedly staked out the home and planned the murders in order to abduct the young children also makes the charges punishable by death. "These were done under the most heinous circumstances," Early said. (source: Court TV)
