Jury sees tape of sole survivor in Idaho slayings

[Jude09]

BOISE, Idaho - Jurors on Tuesday watched a police interview of an 8-year-old girl that was videotaped soon after she was rescued from a convicted pedophile who she said raped her and forced her to watch him torture, molest and kill her brother.


Appearing composed and wrapped in a quilt decorated with teddy bears, Shasta Groene described how she and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, were raped and forced to perform sex acts together by Joseph Edward Duncan III, whom she called "Jet."

The federal jury is to decide whether Duncan should be executed. He has pleaded guilty to 10 federal counts involving the kidnapping and torture of the children and the slaying of Dylan at a remote campsite in western Montana. He also faces the death penalty in a separate state case in which he pleaded guilty to murdering the siblings' family.

While it is The Associated Press' policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault in most cases, the search for Shasta and her brother was so heavily publicized that their names are widely known.

The 2005 interview presented in court was taped at the Kootenai Medical Center, where Shasta Groene, then 8, was being treated shortly after she was spotted with Duncan and rescued at a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene.

On one occasion, she recounted, Duncan took Dylan into an old shack, made him stand on a bench, wrapped wire around his neck, kicked a bench out from under his legs and masturbated as the boy nearly choked to death.

"Then Jet took him down and said, 'Wake up, wake up, wake up,'" Shasta recounted, her voice steady.

Her brother screamed when he woke up because he thought he had been in heaven, she told investigators.

The children were abducted from their home in May 2005 after Duncan fatally bludgeoned their mother, Brenda Groene, their 13-year-old brother, Slade, and the mother's fiance, Mark McKenzie.

Duncan, of Tacoma, Wash., is acting as his own attorney. He has a long string of arrests and convictions for crimes ranging from car theft to rape and molestation. He is suspected in the slayings of two half-sisters from Seattle in 1996 and is charged with killing a young boy in Riverside County, Calif., in 1997.






http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080820/...4C3fXILaBbIwgF

________________________


So what is your opinion?
The death penalty or prison?

[UberSkippy]

There's so much more to that story.

What do I say? Death Penalty. End of discussion. The crimes committed are so heinous, so cold and so brutal that his continued existence on this planet is a threat to anyone and everyone near him.

He made the two kids WATCH as he slaughtered their family. Then he brutally raped both of them, recorded the rapes and then made them watch the videos. Finally, he made the little girl watch as he shot her brother in the head and then raped her.

All of these are things he's admitted guilt too.

Based on his criminal history the simple fact that he wasn't already in prison is a sad shame. The legal system let this little girl down by letting him out.

[Kiwi]

Wow. Poor kid... poor doesnt even begins to cover it.

[HrlyQnn]

The death penalty sounds about right and since he's admitted guilt, the sooner the better.

Is it a trend for serial killers to defend themselves?

[Cathedral]

death penalty is the least of what that sick mofo deserves. he deserves torture, cruel and unsual punishment. Today's death penalties are far to quick and comparitively easy for the crimes he has commited against this little girl and her deceased family.

[Avidity]

I read this and wonder why people oppose the death penalty if not to only reserve it for the most twisted of fucks like this man.

[reFresh]

Prison.

Nobody should be killed in the name of justice, because that renders it not justice, but revenge.

I welcome the fire.

[Cathedral]

Prison.

Nobody should be killed in the name of justice, because that renders it not justice, but revenge.

I welcome the fire.

what's wrong with revenge, when it's wrath is turned upon the man that commited these terrible acts. That little girl will never have a normal life, she will always be haunted by this man's shadow, alive or dead.

[dustinzgirl]

Fry his fucking ass.

Twice.

Then piss on the ashes.

[UberSkippy]

I read this and wonder why people oppose the death penalty if not to only reserve it for the most twisted of fucks like this man.

Because of what Rook just said. I may argue for the death penalty in this case but I do so knowing that I'm not arguing for justice. I'm arguing for vengeance.

The reason people oppose the death penalty is that they're willing to look logically at it and see that it doesn't work and serves no real purpose in the world of "justice" It's ineffective as a crime deterrent and useless as a rehabilitation tool and pointless as a punishment.

But this fuck deserves to die.

[reFresh]

Completely agreed.

I would do terrible things to this man. Horrible, ghastly, unspeakable things. I'd probably enjoy it, too. I would receive great satisfaction watching him suffer. Go payback.

But once he has bled to death on the floor, I wouldn't feel like I had done the girl any justice. There is no logical justice that can be sought, no real way for him, or anyone, to ever return all the damage he's tatooed on her. Nobody will bring her brother back, and nothing can wipe away the haunting echoing screams that she will most likely hear in her nightmares for the rest of her life. This girl is scarred. She will be lucky to not have severe post-traumatic disorders.

As I said, there is nothing you can do to this man that will bring him to "justice". You can throw him in jail where he will get free food and boarding for the rest of his days. Sure, he'll get fucked in the ass a couple of times, but judging from the way he gets off, he might just enjoy it.

You can also fry him, inject him, or gas him. With that being said, he will undergo about 1-2 minutes of terrible pain (depending on the method of execution) and then he will be dead. That isn't justice. You're killing a sick motherfucker, sure, but in doing so you become an executioner, a killer.

This is why I'm religious. I believe that there is nothing we, as human beings, can do to this demented soul. But I'm pretty sure the big guy has some fun things He can make him do.

[disturbed86]

I agree on death penalty, that's a disturbing amount of death, not to mention the other shit.

[Shamiqua]

I suppose this type of punishment for those most hideous crimes.

Force them to work hard labor doing menial and disgusting things until they're too old to work, then kill them on pay per view TV so we can make money off of them instead of just paying for life in prison. Make them pay for their own imprisonment instead of the taxpayers paying.

I'm horrible, but honest

[thekid65]

Like Uber, I've been following this case closely, as it's local. It's cases like these, where I admire some of the 3rd world country's system's of justice that we often call barbaric. In those countries, we wouldnt even be having this discussion. He probably would have been taken to the firing squad, or hangmans noose shortly after being found guilty. No punishment hearing phase, no appeals...nothing but a swift execution.

Unfortunately this case is far from over, as if he chooses, there will be at least 10 more years of hearings, appeals, etc, etc at taxpayer expense.

Pisses me off.

[UberSkippy]

Unfortunately this case is far from over, as if he chooses, there will be at least 10 more years of hearings, appeals, etc, etc at taxpayer expense.

In this case I could care less about the taxpayer's expense as opposed to HER expense. Every time he goes to court she's going to have to relive this whole thing. The media are always going to be knocking on her door and asking her questions she doesn't want to remember the answers too. Until he dies this thing will haunt her.

Don't think for a second that he doesn't know that too. As long as he can file appeals he'll be able to get his rocks off knowing she's STILL in his grip and she's STILL suffering for it.