08/26/08

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ .Federal prosecutors have finished presenting
evidence in their death sentencing case against convicted killer
Joseph Edward Duncan III

And Duncan, who is representing himself, has declined to present
any witnesses on his own behalf.

That means a federal jury will hear closing arguments tomorrow
and then begin deliberations on whether Duncan should spend life in
prison without parole or be executed for his crimes.

In testimony today, jurors were told how Duncan lived where two
girls were abducted in Seattle in 1996 and worked near where the
bodies were found months later.

A former roommate of Duncan, Joseph Ruan, told the panel that
the home they shared was just a few blocks from the restaurant
where 9-year-old Carmen Cubias and her half-sister, 11-year-old
Sammiejo White were last seen.

Duncan faces the death penalty for kidnapping two northern Idaho
children in 2005, and slaying one of them at a remote campsite in
Montana's Lolo National Forest.

Duncan pleaded guilty to 10 federal counts in December in the
abduction of Dylan and Shasta Groene. Dylan, 9, was later tortured
then shot directly in the face.

Last week, the jury unanimously decided that Duncan should be
eligible for the death penalty.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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