The man accused of killing four University of Idaho students two years ago could face the death penalty if convicted, a judge has ruled.
At a hearing this month in Boise, Idaho, suspect Bryan Kohberger’s defense team had tried to convince District Judge Steven Hippler to prevent his trial, scheduled for August, from becoming a murder trial.
But Hippler found that Kohberger’s defense had failed to provide Idaho with an alternative execution method to death by lethal injection or firing squad that is not “excessively painful,” the judge said in his order issued Tuesday.
“The suspect must come up with an alternative method,” Hippler concluded. “He failed to do so, which precludes his claim.”
Idaho’s alternative to the death penalty for a first-degree murder conviction is life in prison, with a minimum of 10 years before parole eligibility.
Prosecutors had said in court filings that four aggravating factors exist in the case against Kohberger, who turns 30 on Thursday, making the crime more serious and deserving of the death penalty. They are that there are multiple victims; the murders were “particularly gruesome, atrocious or cruel”; the suspect showed “complete disregard for human life” and has “a propensity to commit murder that is likely to pose an ongoing threat to society,” the filing said.
A jury must agree that there is at least one aggravating factor before a defendant can be sentenced to death in a capital case. The jury must also unanimously agree to impose a death sentence.
During the hearing, Idaho Deputy Attorney General Jeff said Nye had pushed back against defense claims that the death penalty is unconstitutional, saying it would be “dehumanizing” to keep Kohberger on death row for “years and years and years” if the state does not have a viable method to carry out a crime. to carry out execution.
“You can’t short-circuit death being off the table,” Nye said, adding “that doesn’t mean decades from now there won’t be a method to put him to death.”
From top left: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle.
Idaho has not executed anyone since 2012 because the state, like many others, has had trouble obtaining lethal injection drugs.
Hipple noted during the hearing, however, that the state has received the necessary medications in anticipation of the death of inmate Thomas Creech, who was convicted of five murders in three states and sentenced to death in 1983. His execution remains temporarily halted while he appeals. after the state’s attempt to execute him in February was abandoned when prison staff failed to establish an IV line in the death chamber.
An alternative method to lethal injection – death by firing squad – was signed into law last year, but a revamped chamber to enable it has yet to be built.
Anne Taylor, Kohberger’s public defender, had also disputed the prosecutor’s claim that her client deserves the death penalty because he could pose a future danger to society — which she said is vague because defendants are routinely accused of being dangerous .
“That can’t be true when you’re sitting in the courtroom day in and day out, and you hear that from person after person after person,” Taylor said. “This statute does nothing to help a jury decide who is the worst of the worst.”
A motive remains unclear for the November 2022 murders of roommates Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20.
Kohberger was a native of nearby Pullman, Washington, and then a doctoral student at Washington State University.
While a gag order has prevented many involved in the case from speaking publicly, the prosecutor has said she expects to do so at trial, DNA evidence, details of Kohberger’s cell phone use and surveillance videos to link him to the crime.
Kohberger’s defense has maintained that he often went out late at night and that cellphone tower data would show he was doing so miles away when the four students were killed.
In a filing this month, the defense asked the court to suppress evidence at Kohberger’s trial, including DNA samples, which it believes were unlawfully obtained by law enforcement and violated his constitutional rights.
The trial was moved to Boise from Latah County after the defense successfully argued that there would be a high likelihood of bias among potential jurors and that the local community does not have the resources for such highly anticipated proceedings.
Steve Goncalves, Kaylee Goncalves’ father, supported the rescheduling of the trial, telling NBC News before the judge’s death penalty decision that he wanted the suspect “to be locked up and no longer have an impact on society.”
He added that Kaylee was a “very loving girl” whose spirit was missed.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
