BOISE, Idaho — Convicted child killer Joseph Edward Duncan III has told a federal court judge that he does not want to appeal his death sentence, and federal prosecutors have filed a motion in support of his decision.
Duncan has been sentenced in both federal and state courts for a 2005 rampage in which three members of a Coeur d’Alene family were murdered at their home, and a young brother and sister were kidnapped and sexually tortured. The young boy was eventually killed.
Duncan fired his attorneys and represented himself during his federal court sentencing hearing earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge ordered his lawyers to serve as “standby counsel” instead, advising Duncan when he asked for assistance. In August, he was given three death sentences and three life imprisonment sentences in federal court for the kidnapping, sexual abuse and torture of 9-year-old Dylan Groene and 8-year-old Shasta Groene, and for Dylan’s murder.
Separately, he has also been given three life sentences in state court for the murders of Dylan and Shasta’s older brother, Slade Groene, the children’s mother, Brenda Groene, and her fiance, Mark McKenzie.
On Monday, the standby attorneys — Judy Clarke, Mark Larranaga and Thomas Monaghan — filed a notice of appeal on Duncan’s behalf, informing the federal court that he intended to appeal his case, including his conviction, sentences and the rulings Lodge made during the course of the case, to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The next day, Duncan sent a letter of his own to the court: “This is to inform the court that if any appeal is initiated on my behalf it is done contrary to my wishes.”
On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Tom Moss filed a motion asking Lodge to throw out the standby attorneys’ appeal notice.
“Standby counsel have no standing to separately file a notice of appeal in this case, and their doing so violates the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel,” which in this case is Duncan’s right to represent himself, Moss wrote in the motion.
Duncan told FBI Agent Mike Gneckow that he didn’t want to die, but he didn’t want to file an appeal either, according to an affidavit from Gneckow that was filed with the motion. Duncan said his standby lawyers spent hours trying to persuade him to appeal.
“Well, they came here last week, and they’re good people and they’re really trying to help me out and everything, you know, in their minds, but they just sit there and just ganged up on me,” Duncan said, according to the affidavit. “About five of them, all at once, and sit here and just drilled me for about two hours trying to get me to sign these papers. It’s worse than you guys, you know.”
Duncan said he stopped short of expressly telling the attorneys not to appeal, however.
“You know, I told them, ‘If you want to file an appeal, if you can find some way to file an appeal without my permission, then I’m not going to try to stop you. Go right ahead.’ And that’s when they said, ‘Okay, we think we can do that,’ ” he said, according to Gneckow’s statement. “I wanted to make sure that it’s clear and it’s understood by them and the system, you know, that I have no desire to engage the system.”
Duncan is next expected to be tried for the 1997 abduction and slaying of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez in Riverside, Calif. He faces the death penalty in that case as well.
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