The trial judge has decided that if the man convicted of killing four University of Idaho students two years ago is found guilty, he could be executed.
The defense team for defendant Bryan Kohberger attempted to convince District Court Judge Steven Hippler to prevent his August trial from turning into a capital murder case during a hearing held this month in Boise, Idaho.
In his ruling on Tuesday, Hippler stated that Kohberger’s defense had not succeeded in offering an execution method in Idaho that is not “unduly painful,” such as death by firing squad or lethal injection.
“Defendant must come forward with an alternative method,” he said. “He has not done so, thus foreclosing his claim.”
For a first-degree murder conviction, Idaho offers life in prison with at least 10 years spent before a person is eligible for parole as an alternative to the death penalty.
In court documents, prosecutors claimed that Kohberger, who turns 30 on Thursday, has four aggravating circumstances in the case that make the crime more serious and call for the death penalty. According to the filing, these include the following: the murders were “particularly heinous, atrocious, or cruel”; the suspect showed “utter disregard for human life”; there are several victims; and the suspect has “a propensity to commit murder which will probably constitute a continuing threat to society.”
For a defendant to get a death sentence, a jury must agree that at least one aggravating circumstance exists. In order to impose a death sentence, the jury must also unanimously agree.
Idaho Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye countered the defense’s arguments during the hearing that Kohberger’s imprisonment on death row “for years and years and years” would be “dehumanizing” if the state lacked a practical means of carrying out an execution.
“You don’t get to short-circuit the whole thing that death is off the table,” Nye said. He continued, “That’s not to say decades from now there’s not going to be a method to put him to death.”
Since 2012, Idaho has not carried out an execution because, like many other states, it has struggled to obtain lethal injection medicines.
As the state awaits the execution of inmate Thomas Creech, who was found guilty of five murders in three states and given the capital penalty in 1983, Hippler pointed out at the hearing that the state did receive the required medications. After the state’s February execution attempt was shelved due to prison workers failing to set up an IV line in the death chamber, his execution is still on hold while he appeals.
A modified chamber has yet to be built, but last year an alternative to lethal injection—death by firing squad—was approved into law.
Kohberger’s public attorney, Anne Taylor, had also contested the prosecution’s argument that her client should be executed because he would be a future threat to society. She argued that this argument was ambiguous because prisoners are frequently charged with being dangerous.
“That can’t be true when you sit in court day after day after day and you hear that about person after person after person,” Taylor stated. “This statute doesn’t do anything to help a jury decide who is the worst of the worst.”
The murders of housemates Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, in November 2022 have not yet been linked to a motive.
Kohberger lived in the neighboring town of Pullman, Washington, and then attended Washington State University to pursue a doctorate.
Although the gag order has kept many of the case’s participants from commenting in public, the prosecution has stated that it plans to utilize surveillance footage, DNA evidence, and information regarding Kohberger’s cellphone use to link him to the murder during the trial.
According to Kohberger’s defense, he frequently took late-night trips, and cell tower data would indicate that he was miles away when the four students were killed.
The defense requested in a motion this month that the court withhold evidence—including DNA samples—during the trial because it believes that law enforcement wrongfully obtained them and that doing so violated his constitutional rights.
After the defense successfully claimed that there would be a significant likelihood of bias among potential jurors and that the community lacks the resources for such highly anticipated hearings, the trial was transferred from Latah County to Boise.
Prior to the judge’s decision to impose the death penalty, Kaylee Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, told NBC News that he was in favor of moving the trial and that he wished to see Kohberger “locked away and no longer influencing society.”
The “very loving girl” Kaylee was, he said, has been missed.
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