BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A judge has imposed a gag order on those involved in the upcoming federal trial of Joseph Duncan III, charged with kidnapping and related counts in a brutal 2005 attack on an Idaho family.
The order, issued by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, is designed to limit pretrial statements about the case.
Duncan has pleaded guilty in Idaho state court to killing three members of the family at their home on May 16, 2005. Fatally bludgeoned with a hammer were Brenda Groene; her fiance, Mark McKenzie, and her 13-year-old son Slade Groene.
Duncan faces a federal trial on charges of kidnapping the family's two younger children, Shasta, then 8, and Dylan Groene, 9, and later killing Dylan at a remote Montana campsite. Shasta was rescued weeks later when Duncan was arrested at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant.
Federal prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty when the trial begins in January.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The court finds there is a reasonable likelihood that a fair trial by an impartial jury will not result unless appropriate steps are taken concerning the conduct of the trial and ... statements by parties, witnesses and prospective witnesses," Lodge wrote Friday.
Lodge also ruled that no photographs or broadcasts by television stations will be permitted in the courtroom during the trial.
Before his arrest, Duncan lived in Fargo.
