Convicted serial killer Joseph E. Duncan should have been given a formal hearing to determine his mental competency before being allowed to waive his right to legal representation and to appeal his death sentence, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The ruling means Duncan, who killed a North Idaho family and one of the two children he abducted and took to Montana in 2005, will return to federal court for hearings to determine whether he was mentally competent when he decided to represent himself in the death penalty case. ... If Lodge finds that Duncan was incompetent, which his attorneys have previously argued, Lodge would be required to vacate Duncan’s death sentence and hold a second sentencing trial detailing the deadly claw-hammer attack on the Groene family at their small home at Wolf Lodge near Coeur d’Alene/Thomas Clouse, SR. More here. (2006 SR file photo of Joseph Duncan)

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