Duncan’s competency hearing expected to wrap up

Attorneys for condemned killer Joseph Edward Duncan III are preparing to present their final arguments to a judge over whether Duncan was mentally competent when he waived his right to appeal.

Duncan’s defense attorneys and federal prosecutors were scheduled to give their final arguments in the case before U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge on Thursday afternoon.

Duncan was convicted of kidnapping and torturing two northern Idaho children in 2005. He tortured both kids in Montana for weeks before killing one and returning to Idaho with the other, where he was arrested.

Duncan was sentenced to death and he waived his right to appeal. But an appellate court has ordered the retrospective competency hearing to see if he was capable of acting rationally when he made that decision.