After pleading guilty to the murder of Anthony Martinez, a judge today sentenced serial murderer Joseph Edward Duncan III to his tenth life sentence.Duncan has already been sentenced to die to three sentences stemming from murders committed in the state of Idaho by a federal court. Typically, the federal death system is quicker than California, which currently houses the largest number of death row inmates in the country.

Riverside County prosecutors filed murder charges in 2007 and extradited Duncan to face the death penalty. Newly-elected District Attorney Paul Zellerbach accepted a settlement from Duncan’s attorneys to agree to the life sentence. Although DA Zellerbach said that it was a very difficult decision to agree to a life sentence, he agreed to that punishment only after the family indicated that they would agree to the settlement.

A news report can be found here.