DEFENSE DIVIDED: DUNCAN’S KIDDY PORN
SPOKANE, Wash. — Federal Defender, Roger Peven has said “Thanks, but no thanks” to evidence which would certainly figure prominently, if used at all, in the trial of Joseph Edward Duncan III. Duncan is awaiting trial next year on three counts of murder in an attack on a home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The evidence in question is child-porn videotapes involving Duncan’s alleged victims. Legal experts throughout the country are today considering what may very well be the first case of a defense attorney censoring due process.
-
“The possibility that the pornographic material could be accidentally released to the public outweighs any benefits to the defense team of having copies of the material.”, said federal defender Roger Peven
The tapes, which likely include footage of Shasta Groene, the 8-year-old sole survivor of the mid-May attack, and her brother, Dylan, who vanished the night three relatives were slain at the family home. The body of 9-year-old Dylan was found in Montana after Shasta was rescued and Duncan arrested at a Coeur d’Alene restaurant July 2.
In state court, Duncan faces three counts of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning deaths of the abducted children’s mother, Brenda Groene; their 13-year-old brother, Slade; and their mother’s boyfriend, Mark McKenzie.
Court documents allege the slayings were committed so Duncan could abduct the children for sex. More of the Joseph Edward Duncan story
joseph edward duncan | shasta groene | child porn | censorship
November 9th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
Deal reached in Duncan tape controversy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Lawyers for Joseph Edward Duncan III on Wednesday dropped their demand for copies of disturbing videotapes found with the registered sex offender, after prosecutors said they would not use the tapes during trial.
The tapes were found in Duncan’s vehicle after he was arrested July 2 with kidnap victim Shasta Groene, 8.
While prosecutors have not disclosed exactly what is on the tapes, they have said they are “graphic” and “vile” images of child pornography.
Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas had refused to make copies for defense lawyers, saying he feared that Shasta and her family would be further victimized if a copy somehow became public.
February 2nd, 2006 at 1:57 pm
[…] e way to do that is by cutting us off from the rest of the business world. They do that by passing laws that apply only to the porn industry until we either implode from all the c […]