It’s time for me to take a week off; I’ll return to work on Sept. 8th. I plan to do some windsurfing and mountain biking, spend time with family, clean my house and get some rest. I still hope to speak with jurors, perhaps after they’ve had some time to recover, to fill in the final puzzle piece of the very usual court case that’s just concluded. I’ll continue to follow developments in the case after I return, but I’ll also be shifting gears and turning back to what now seem much more tame subjects: Idaho politics and the fall election campaigns.

There are many aspects of this case that continue to nag. Did Duncan commit other crimes that have not yet come to light? Are there clues in the evidence that was presented in court that would lead to those? What about all the evidence that was sealed, including the extensive evaluations that ruled Duncan mentally competent? James Cohen, Fordham University law professor, told me this morning, “I think we have missed an opportunity to get a glimpse into who this guy is or was, and that may have some lessons for the criminal justice system.”

As I drove my son and his friend to the fair last weekend, the Doors song “Riders on the Storm” came on the radio, and the line about the killer on the road seemed chillingly apropos. Perhaps the most haunting aspect of this case is that Duncan’s crimes lashed out against innocent children he didn’t even know, strangers just living their lives in peace until his murderous rampage, without warning, randomly struck them and their families. It could have been any of us.

Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s office, said California won’t be able to seek Joseph Duncan’s extradition until the judge has certified the death penalty, which can take 60 to 70 days, and there’s a formal disposition of all the federal and state charges against Duncan in Idaho. “The sooner the better, obviously, but we’re certainly one step closer to having our case heard here in Riverside County,” Wyatt said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson said Thursday that Duncan likely will remain in federal custody in Boise until after he’s sentenced on Oct. 15 on the remaining counts to which he’s pleaded guilty. He received the death sentence on three counts for 9-year-old Dylan Groene’s death, but also pleaded guilty to seven non-capital crimes for kidnapping and molesting Dylan and his 8-year-old sister, Shasta, in 2005. “We still have primary jurisdiction over him,” Olson said.

Duncan told the FBI he abducted and murdered 10-year-old Anthony Martinez in southern California in 1997; a fingerprint found at the murder scene matched Duncan's. “We’re certainly pleased with the jury’s decision there on the federal case,” Wyatt said. “In each jurisdiction, they’re terrible cases, and so we’re just awaiting our turn here in Riverside County to seek justice for the Martinez family. It’s been a long time coming here in Riverside County.” Here’s a link to our full story today on Thursday’s developments in the case.

Joseph Duncan’s 10th grade biology teacher in Tacoma, Wash. has been writing to him, providing him with a religious article and telling him that he feels “very sorry for not only his victims but him as well.” “I told him that a lady who I thought was working for one of his attorneys had contacted me a year ago and told me that he was going to be on trial for the crimes and the prosecution would be asking for the death penalty,” the teacher, who asked that his name not be published, said in an email. “I told her that I didn’t remember him well, but his face jumped right out the minute she showed me his picture. I told her that I remember him as being rather shy, very quiet but very polite.”

The teacher, who taught in public school then but now works for a Christian school organization, said, “Of course I feel more sorry for his victims and their families than Joseph, but I don’t think a young man like Joseph can turn into the kind of person he became without a lot of help along the way – someone sure failed him, that’s for sure.” Asked if he had any sense, back when the 15- or 16-year-old Duncan was in his class, that something already had gone wrong for him – within a year he’d be arrested for his first violent sex crime and sentenced to 20 years – the teacher said, “The one troubling thing that I can remember was that he didn’t seem to have a friend in the world. Other than that, no. I thought he was just very shy.”

"Before 2005, visitors knew Wolf Lodge Bay as a place to eat a famous steak, watch ospreys launch after fish in Lake Coeur d’Alene or find an easy campsite," S-R reporters Thomas Clouse and Jim Camden reported in today’s paper. "Now it’s known for the empty house where a killer and child rapist came searching for prey on May 16, 2005. Along with the sexual assaults and four murders, Joseph Edward Duncan III also ripped the soul out of the community’s sense of place." Here’s a link to their full story on the impact of Duncan’s crimes on the community; here’s a link to S-R reporter Bill Morlin’s report on what comes next for Duncan; and here’s a link to our full story on Wednesday’s events, complete with audio clips.

S-R reporter Rich Roesler found few of Joseph Duncan’s relatives willing to comment yesterday as a federal jury in Idaho sentenced him to death, but a woman in Tacoma who was involved with Duncan’s father – the two share a son – and first met Duncan as a troubled teen said the jury made the right call. Here is Roesler’s report:

“One of my sons asked `what if it was me that had done that?' and I said `Honey, if you had done that, I would be the one to push the trigger,” said Pat Rybiski, 61. “I don't care how abused or mistreated, there's no excuse for what that man's done.”

“The Lord is the one that gets vengeance, the eye for the eye, not we people,” she said. “He guided the jury to that decision.”

Rybiski dated Duncan's father for three years around 1980. Their son, now 27, is Duncan's half-brother.

She said that an investigator for Duncan's lawyers had repeatedly asked her to testify on his behalf during the sentencing. Rybiski refused. She monitored the trial from afar and was revolted by what she learned about the case.

“I was really kind of sick to my stomach thinking that the man had been in my house, close to all three of my children,” she said.

Duncan, then 17, was already in serious trouble when Rybiski met him for the first time. He was committed to a state mental hospital for an evaluation pending his trial for molesting a younger Pierce County boy at gunpoint.

“At the time, I thought `He's a game-player, he tells you what you want to hear. And smart,'” she said.

Later, she said, Duncan visited the family, trying to get to know his half-brother. And as the two boys were talking in the living room, Rybiski said, Duncan said something that startled her.

“He said `People are going to tell you I am a very black soul, and you need to believe that,'” she said. “I remember that very clearly.”

She said she last spoke with Duncan shortly before he went to North Dakota.

Rybiski said she feels sorry for Duncan's family. His brother Bruce died of a sudden heart problem two years ago. His mother lives in Tacoma, where she declined comment Wednesday. His father lived in Las Vegas recently, but has apparently moved.

“It would be hard for a mom and a dad to know that your kid was a demented...I don't know the word. Psychopath,” she said.

Jurors who imposed the death penalty on Joseph Duncan have had counseling made available to them by the court, after the horrific things they’ve seen and heard in the course of the sentencing trial. The court confirmed that in a press release this morning, and also confirmed once again that jurors are free to talk with the press if they choose. They were informed of that before they left the courthouse yesterday, but then they boarded vans in the courthouse basement and were whisked out away from the assembled media. I’d very much like to talk with any jurors who are willing to talk. Please contact me through the Eye on Boise blog, or call my Boise office locally at 336-2854, or toll-free from outside the Boise area at (866) 336-2854.

Joseph Duncan still must appear again before Judge Lodge in Boise for sentencing on the other seven charges to which he’s pleaded guilty. Today, he was sentenced to death for each of the three capital crimes. For the other offenses, for kidnapping and molesting Dylan and Shasta, the judge set Duncan’s sentencing for Oct. 15 at 9:30 a.m.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas has issued a statement noting that under the plea agreement he reached with Joseph Duncan in the state case, his death sentence on federal charges now concludes the case there. If Duncan hadn’t gotten the death penalty in federal court, under the agreement, he’d have been returned to Kootenai County and a jury would have been convened there to consider the death penalty for the three murders he committed there – those of Brenda Matthews Groene, Mark McKenzie and Slade Groene. “Kootenai County gave up nothing in this plea agreement and kept the death penalty on the table in the event a federal jury did not impose the death penalty,” Douglas said in his statement. “The federal death sentence in Boise means that Kootenai County will stipulate to three consecutive life sentences for the murders. … These crimes have left deep scars, and it is my hope that today’s verdict will give some closure to Shasta, her family, and to our community.”

S-R reporter Meghann Cuniff saw the emotional scene in the elevator lobby of the federal courthouse, where tearful jurors shook the hand of Steven Groene, father of the victim, while he thanked the jurors. “You made the right decision – don’t ever think you didn’t,” Groene told the jurors. “My family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts.” He told them he was sorry they had to watch the graphic video of his son’s abuse. “I sure hope the government is offering you guys some counseling,” the father said. “I refused it for a long time, and when I eventually did it, it helped a lot.” Most of the jurors were in tears, Cuniff reported, as they, one after another, shook Groene’s hand, telling him over and over again how sorry they were for what happened to his son.

Steve Groene, father of the murdered child, emerged from the courthouse and said, “I’d a given him the death penalty after the first day of witnesses.” Groene said, “I’ve told people in the past the only way there’ll be closure is if they let me kill this guy myself,” but he added, “That wouldn’t even do it.” Groene said, “I’m not really happy that another life is going to get taken now.” The whole thing could have ended, he said, with just one life – if Duncan had killed himself, as his journals show he debated doing, instead of going after innocent children. “It could’ve all ended with one life.”

U.S. Attorney Tom Moss, speaking outside the federal couthouse in Boise, said, "The jury speaks the mind of the community. I think by this verdict today they have given voice to the victims and the people who were injured by the circumstances in this case."

Moss said prosecutors had to show the graphic abuse video to jurors to prove "that the crime that was committed was especially heinous, cruel and depraved. This was the best evidence we had of that," adding, "that evidence was critical."

Before closing down his courtroom, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge told the court that a sweeping gag order imposed on parties and witnesses to the case is no longer in effect.

"The gag order is now lifted," the judge said.

Darlene Torres, Dylan and Shasta’s grandmother, was the first relative to come out of the courtroom. She said, “I am so glad this is over. Justice has been served. It’s been a long three years.” She said when she looked at Duncan in the courtroom, “I see nothing but an evil, empty cold-hearted shell, that’s all I see.”

She said nothing can be done to Duncan that will relieve her emptiness, “but at least I know he’s not out there hurting anyone else.” She added, “His judgment day is coming yet – he will pay for what he’s done,” referring to when Duncan faces his maker.

Joseph Duncan should die for his crimes, a jury of nine men and three women unanimously agreed today after three hours of deliberation. It’s a rare result – one reached only 61 times by federal juries since 1988, during which time juries chose life in prison without the possibility of parole twice as often, 121 times. Prosecutors, in their closing arguments, stressed that if ever a case was the right one for the death penalty, it was Duncan’s.

The jury has reached a verdict, after three hours of deliberation, and the court will go back in session at 2:15 Boise time to hear it.

Whelan told the court in her closing argument that each time Duncan was let out of prison, he killed. When he was paroled and moved to Fargo, N.D., “he appeared to have changed,” she said. “It was an act. … He duped his friends, he told them he needed money for an attorney. … Instead he took advantage of their misplaced trust, and he used that money to finance his trip of terror across the country.”

The sentencing trial has included testimony from Dr. Richard Wacksman, formerly of Fargo, who gave Duncan $6,500 for an attorney that Duncan instead used for his crime spree, and from Dave Woelfert of Seattle, who had a “personal relationship” with Duncan, supported him when he was paroled there and paid a down payment on a car for him. Woelfert, who first met Duncan as a pen pal while Duncan was in prison in Washington, wrote to parole officials in 1993, “He is no threat to society whatsoever.”

Not testifying in the sentencing trial was Joe Crary, a Fargo businessman who gave Duncan $15,000 to cover his bail on a child molesting charge in Minnesota. Duncan jumped bail and instead went on his crime spree. Here's a link to a 2005 Spokesman-Review story by Rich Roesler about how Duncan charmed and exploited such friends.

The jury pool – 12 jurors and three alternates – dropped down from 15 to 14 yesterday, as one alternate juror, an elderly gentleman, was gone. Judge Edward Lodge said today that that alternate juror was “excused by the court for good cause.” He wasn’t there today, either. The court hasn’t commented on whether jurors will be offered counseling after what they’ve seen and heard in this case.

As they listened to closing arguments today, some jurors clearly were affected. One alternate nodded her head vigorously as Whelan made various points. Another female juror struggled to keep her composure, holding a tissue, sometimes covering her mouth, and wiping at her eyes at the end. Some looked angry at times. All looked somber.

In her closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan told the court, “Death is the appropriate punishment in this case – death is the sentence that this defendant has earned, and it is the sentence that is consistent with the law.” A death sentence is not sought lightly, she said. But she went through Duncan’s crimes and his victims, and said, “This defendant is dangerous to all types of people.” Whelan said some might wonder how Duncan could be dangerous if he’s incarcerated for the rest of his life with no possibility of parole, but she said, “This defendant has a history that is so littered with violence. … This defendant is resourceful enough that he may commit additional acts of violence even in a prison. … As a society, we do not check our decency at the prison gate.”

She noted that when Duncan was a Washington state prisoner – he’s spent about half his life in Washington state prisons – he had disciplinary violations including throwing a garbage can lid at a guard and hitting him just below the eye, and being caught with contraband in his cell including wire and razor blades. People who work in the prison system don’t deserve to be exposed to Duncan’s violence, Whelan told the court.

As she spoke, Duncan stopped writing on a yellow legal pad, briefly covered his face with both hands, and seemed to wipe his face with an anguished expression. Then he went back to his most common pose in court, resting his chin on his clasped hands and closing his eyes as if praying. He wasn’t asleep, however. Every so often, he moved his long, pale fingers, scratching at his beard.

During the prosecution’s closing statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan illustrated some of her points by playing snippets of audio of Shasta Groene’s statements to police just after her rescue from Duncan in 2005. In one, Shasta, just outside the Denny’s restaurant where she was rescued, tearfully told a Coeur d’Alene police officer that her brother was dead, and described his murder. “You saw all that?” the officer said. Shasta, crying, said, “And then we burnt his body,” and she broke into sobs.

Whelan also played the clip in which Shasta talked about how Joseph Duncan called her 9-year-old brother a coward. “He wanted to show Jet that he wasn’t a coward, and he really wasn’t, he was very, very brave,” the little girl’s voice declared. Whelan echoed that. “He was a very, very brave boy,” Whelan told the court.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan moved at least one juror to tears with her closing statement, in which she went through the entire case, with the beam from the cabin, wire noose dangling, once again wheeled into the courtroom and displayed to jurors. “It is time to close the book on these horrific crimes,” Whelan told the court. “He chose to commit these crimes, he reveled in these crimes, and he was proud of how smart he was to beat the system.”

Whelan spoke for about an hour, and as she did, jurors watched her, watched the screen where she displayed evidence from the case, and occasionally wrote down a note on their pads, but by the end of her argument, all were staring directly at her, transfixed. “This defendant is dangerous,” Whelan declared. “He is a predator who took pride in his work,” she said as a photo of 9-year-old Dylan Groene came up on the screen. “He earned this day. His actions and his conduct call out for the death penalty.” Joseph Duncan sat looking down, often writing notes on a pad or flipping his black pen. But despite writing furiously during Whelan’s presentation, when it ended and the judge asked Duncan for his closing argument, Duncan said, “I have no argument.”

“Mr. Duncan has no argument and both sides have now rested their case,” the judge declared. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the case is now presented to you.”

As the jurors rose and filed out, Duncan stood watching them, his hands clasped behind his back as if already handcuffed, though they weren’t yet.

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has just finished reading a half-hour’s worth of instructions to the jurors; closing arguments are up next. “You are called upon to make a reasoned, moral judgment,” the judge told the jurors. “Use your experience, judgment and sense of justice.” As the instructions were read, Joseph Duncan looked down at the table, his chin resting on clasped hands, eyes closed.

Judy Clarke, standby counsel for Joseph Duncan, told the court just now that Duncan believes he has presented mitigating evidence, even though he called no witnesses and presented no testimony on that. “He received an epiphany on the mountain through S.G. (Shasta), and that’s the reason she is alive today,” Clarke told the court, and that’s what Duncan believes the mitigating evidence is. “Words hinder the understanding of the truth” in Duncan’s view, Clarke said. “That is Mr. Duncan’s view of mitigation.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson responded, “The United States submits, your honor, that Mr. Duncan put forth no evidence with regard to that mitigating factor. … He simply has not done so.”

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge said, “The court is in agreement with the government. … The epiphany that Mr. Duncan apparently has in mind is something I guess the jury could find on their own, but there’s no evidence that’s been presented on that issue, and the court feels it would be in error to specifically instruct on something there’s no evidence on.” The exchange came as the attorneys, Duncan and the judge gathered this morning to go over jury instructions, which will be read to jurors this morning before closing arguments in the death penalty sentencing trial.

With heartfelt testimony from the father of murdered Dylan Groene, prosecutors wrapped up their case Tuesday in the federal death penalty sentencing trial for admitted killer Joseph Duncan, and U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge set closing arguments for 9 a.m. today, Boise time, after which the case will go to the jury to decide whether Duncan should die for his crimes against the 9-year-old Coeur d'Alene boy. Asked what he learned from his youngest son, Steve Groene said it was a lesson he unfortunately didn't learn until after Dylan died: "Every minute with your children – you can't take any of that time for granted, because you can wake up the next day, they may not be there." Here’s a link to my full story in today’s Spokesman-Review.

As prosecutors presented information about the three past child murders in court on Monday and Tuesday, there was no graphic evidence provided about torture or abuse, beyond the fatal blows to the head. No shocking photos or videos were shown to the jurors. But at that point, they weren’t necessary. A King County medical examiner’s mention that gray duct tape was found with the remains of the two girls in Washington, and Duncan’s statement to FBI agents that he “did my thing” with his young victim in southern California when he kept him alive for a day in the desert were more than enough information, for everyone in the courtroom, to make the picture clear.

The testimony has come to a close in Joseph Duncan’s federal death penalty sentencing trial without the sole surviving victim, now-11-year-old Shasta Groene, having to take the stand and see her attacker again. The prosecution and defense had reached an agreement regarding Shasta’s testimony in the first phase, in which it was admitted through videotaped and audiotaped statements that the child gave to authorities shortly after her rescue from Duncan in 2005. But there still remained the possibility that she could testify in the victim-impact phase; according to court documents, that was her right as a victim.

However, Judge Lodge stopped federal prosecutors from questioning Steve Groene about the memorial that he and Shasta left for Dylan at the scene of Dylan’s murder, testimony that was to include a photo of the site where Duncan burned Dylan’s body, transformed into a memorial with matchbox cars and other items in memory of Dylan. The prosecution also had at the ready photos of a memorial stone engraved with a poem, which has been placed at the campsite where Dylan died. But Lodge asked them not to present them.

The issue first surfaced when prosecutors were questioning Nancy Ison, Shasta’s teacher at Fernan Elementary, and they were about to go into how the little girl had changed after the crimes. The judge sent the jury from the courtroom and cautioned the attorneys, “We are getting into an area that I consider very dangerous. … Since S.G. was also a victim of this … crime, I don’t know whether you’re going to be able to lay a foundation. … I think it’s a very dangerous area, because D.G. obviously is the victim.” Testimony, he said, could get into “something other than the loss of D.G.”

The judge is being very careful, in this capital case, to avoid anything not strictly permitted for this type of hearing – to ensure that the ultimate outcome of the case can withstand legal challenge. It seems like the judge’s concerns about the teacher’s testimony would have applied equally to victim-impact testimony by the child herself – it could give the jury a picture of the trauma the crimes caused to Shasta, not just the trauma she experienced because of Dylan’s death. Later, after a break and before Steve Groene’s testimony, with the jury still out of the room, Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan made her case to the judge for presenting the memorial photos. “That’s the only memorial he has of his son, and that is up at the very place where his son was killed,” Whelan told the court. But the judge said the purpose of victim impact testimony is to show the uniqueness of each victim, especially to his family. With the photos, he said, “I think the primary purpose is emotional rather than reasoned. … I don’t want you to go into it.”

Among the odd, stray items raised in today’s evidence: Duncan’s girlfriend in Seattle apparently had a husband and two young daughters. In a monthly report from May of 1996 from Duncan’s parole officer, Sandy Silver, presented in court today, a note at the bottom says, “Please call Dee Ellis and her husband and arrange a meeting regarding ‘visitation’ with her and her family, 2 girls age 12 & 6.” At the side, the parole officer had noted, “12 and 6 females.”

Another oddity: Duncan seemed to be suggesting that he didn’t move into the home of roommate Joseph Ruan until mid-August, when a parole report first notes that he moved. That may explain his odd questioning of Ruan and Cindy Snyder in which he suggested the events they described, and the comments they recalled him making about the two missing girls in Seattle, might not have happened because he didn’t live in the home at the time. However, his parole officer, Sandy Silver, under questioning by Duncan, told him, “I don’t know when you moved,” and reminded Duncan that he had lied to her about other matters. “Mr. Duncan, I don’t think you were particularly accurate about marijuana use, swimming pool incidents” and other things that eventually resulted in his parole being revoked, she said.

Another: Duncan has been incarcerated since his July 2005 arrest, so it’s not surprising that he looks pale. He’s looked worse and worse the last couple of days, however, his hair shaggy and unkempt. Sometimes in court he’s appeared very cold the last few days, and has burrowed his ghostly-pale right hand and wrist into the left sleeve of his garish yellow-gold jail-issue sweatshirt, hugging his then-linked arms to himself as if he were in a straitjacket.

When various witnesses have been asked to identify Duncan in the courtroom by stating where he is and what he’s wearing, some have struggled to describe Duncan’s outfit of jail-issue sweatshirt and scrubs. Ruan came the closest today. Here’s his description: “He’s wearing a mustard top with long dishwater brown hair and a beard.”