Idaho Family’s Killer Gets Death in Federal Child Kidnapping and Murder Case

Sentencing and Post-Conviction

Idaho Family’s Killer Gets Death in Federal Child Kidnapping and Murder Case

Posted Aug 27, 2008, 03:12 pm CST
By Martha Neil

A federal jury in Boise, Idaho, decided today that a man convicted of killing four members of a northern Idaho family should be sentenced to death for kidnapping, torturing and murdering a 9-year-old boy from that family in 2005.

Joseph Edward Duncan III had pleaded guilty in the case late last year, and the only question remaining for the jury was whether to sentence him to life in prison without parole or the death penalty, reports KTVB on its website.

He had earlier been sentenced to a life prison term after pleading guilty in state court to murdering a teenager and two adult members of the same family at their home. He reportedly committed the murders in order to kidnap the 9-year-old boy and a surviving girl, who was 8 at the time of the crime.

Duncan, who has been representing himself, apparently did not argue against the death penalty, and jurors were reportedly shown a graphic videotape that he made of his activities with the 9-year-old.

"His past is littered with arrests and prison time, including a conviction for raping a boy at gunpoint in 1980," the station writes. "Duncan has told investigators he killed two half-sisters from Seattle in 1996 slayings, and he is charged with killing a young boy in Riverside County, Calif., in 1997."

Despite evidence that links Duncan to the 1996 killings of the two half-sisters, he is not expected to be charged in the case in the foreseeable future, the Seattle Times reports.

Earlier coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "Closed Courtroom Sought in High-Profile Capital-Case Sentencing"

ABA Journal - Law News Now

Sentencing and Post-Conviction