Post by CCADP on Aug 20, 2005 18:52:13 GMT -5
Idaho judge bars cameras from Duncan's court hearing
08/20/2005
Associated Press
Cameras and other recording devices will be barred from the courtroom during next week's hearing for sexual predator Joseph E. Duncan III, accused of killing three members of an Idaho family in order to kidnap and molest two children.
First District Judge Fred Gibler on Friday forbade cameras, laptops, cell phones and audio recorders from Courtroom 12 in the Kootenai County Courthouse during next Tuesday's hearing, which is expected to last about 30 minutes.
Gibler also turned down a request from Court TV, a television show that broadcasts trials and court-related events live for cable audiences, to use a BlackBerry communication device that would have allowed a reporter inside the courtroom to communicate with producers outside with text-messaging.
Earlier this year the program covered the trial of Sarah Johnson, an 18-year-old Bellevue woman convicted in Boise in March of shooting her parents to death in their bedroom in 2003 in a dispute over a boyfriend.
The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled the decision whether to allow electronic recording equipment in the courtroom is solely up to the judge in the case and that such decisions aren't subject to appeal.
Gibler still could allow cameras and recorders back into the courtroom during Duncan's trial, slated to begin early next year, said Capt. Ben Wolfinger, a spokesman for the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.
The trial will likely draw national and international media attention, in part because Duncan is now a person of interest in at least three other child murders in California and Washington state in 1996 and 1997. Media representatives will be given 20 seats per day for the arraignment and the trial.
Duncan, a 42-year-old registered sex offender from Fargo, N.D., faces the death penalty on charges of three counts of first-degree kidnapping and three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Brenda Kay Groene, 40, her son, Slade Groene, 13, and boyfriend Mark Edward McKenzie, 37. All three were found May 16 bound with plastic ties and beaten to death at their Wolf Lodge Bay home near U.S. Interstate 90.
Duncan, who spent nearly two decades in prison after raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in 1980 in Tacoma, Wash., is also accused of kidnapping 8-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9-year-old brother Dylan.
That prompted a seven-week manhunt that culminated in Duncan's arrest inside a Coeur d'Alene Denny's restaurant early July 2. Shasta Groene was recovered — she's currently staying with her father, Steve Groene — but the remains of her brother were found days later at a remote campsite near St. Regis, Mont.
08/20/2005
Associated Press
Cameras and other recording devices will be barred from the courtroom during next week's hearing for sexual predator Joseph E. Duncan III, accused of killing three members of an Idaho family in order to kidnap and molest two children.
First District Judge Fred Gibler on Friday forbade cameras, laptops, cell phones and audio recorders from Courtroom 12 in the Kootenai County Courthouse during next Tuesday's hearing, which is expected to last about 30 minutes.
Gibler also turned down a request from Court TV, a television show that broadcasts trials and court-related events live for cable audiences, to use a BlackBerry communication device that would have allowed a reporter inside the courtroom to communicate with producers outside with text-messaging.
Earlier this year the program covered the trial of Sarah Johnson, an 18-year-old Bellevue woman convicted in Boise in March of shooting her parents to death in their bedroom in 2003 in a dispute over a boyfriend.
The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled the decision whether to allow electronic recording equipment in the courtroom is solely up to the judge in the case and that such decisions aren't subject to appeal.
Gibler still could allow cameras and recorders back into the courtroom during Duncan's trial, slated to begin early next year, said Capt. Ben Wolfinger, a spokesman for the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.
The trial will likely draw national and international media attention, in part because Duncan is now a person of interest in at least three other child murders in California and Washington state in 1996 and 1997. Media representatives will be given 20 seats per day for the arraignment and the trial.
Duncan, a 42-year-old registered sex offender from Fargo, N.D., faces the death penalty on charges of three counts of first-degree kidnapping and three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Brenda Kay Groene, 40, her son, Slade Groene, 13, and boyfriend Mark Edward McKenzie, 37. All three were found May 16 bound with plastic ties and beaten to death at their Wolf Lodge Bay home near U.S. Interstate 90.
Duncan, who spent nearly two decades in prison after raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in 1980 in Tacoma, Wash., is also accused of kidnapping 8-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9-year-old brother Dylan.
That prompted a seven-week manhunt that culminated in Duncan's arrest inside a Coeur d'Alene Denny's restaurant early July 2. Shasta Groene was recovered — she's currently staying with her father, Steve Groene — but the remains of her brother were found days later at a remote campsite near St. Regis, Mont.