Should death penalty be option in Kohberger case?

Bryan Kohberger and his attorneys are back in a Boise courtroom Thursday in their push to drop the death penalty as a possible sentence with murder convictions in the killing of four University of Idaho students at trial next summer. 

Idaho, one of 27 U.S. states that maintain capital punishment, will seek to place the defendant on death row if jurors find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for the violent crime. Idaho’s approved execution methods include lethal injection and death by firing squad. 

Kohberger’s defense argues that the death penalty is arbitrary, inappropriate under modern standards and unconstitutional. Prosecutors counter it is the law of the land in Idaho, and constitutionally defensible based upon precedent in both the state and U.S. supreme courts. 

Ada County Judge Steven Hippler, of Idaho’s 4th Judicial District, scheduled a four-hour hearing Thursday for oral arguments. He’ll decide whether the death penalty should apply in Kohberger’s closely watched case. 

Despite arguments from Kohberger’s attorneys, Hippler denied the defense’s request to allow experts, U of I law professor Aliza Cover and Dr. Barbara Wolf, a medical examiner licensed in Florida, to testify Thursday. Hippler said Cover’s law review article focused on narrowing the use of the death penalty in Idaho and a declaration submitted by Wolf would be sufficient enough.

Thursday’s pretrial hearing is being livestreamed on the 4th Judicial District’s YouTube page at: www.youtube.com/@idahofourthdistrictcourt. Jury selection in Kohberger’s murder trial is scheduled to start July.

Kohberger, 29, is accused of the November 2022 stabbing deaths of the four U of I students at a home near campus in Moscow. At the time he was a graduate student at Washington State University living just over the Idaho-Washington border in Pullman. 

The four victims were three North Idaho women who lived in the home, and the boyfriend of one of them. They were: Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. Two other female housemates went physically unharmed in the early morning weekend attack. 

Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder along with a count of felony burglary. A defendant is only eligible for the death penalty in Idaho with a first-degree murder or conspiracy to commit first-degree murder conviction — such as in the criminal cases of Lori and Chad Daybell. 

Last year, prosecutors in the case issued their intent to seek the death penalty for Kohberger, as required under Idaho law. A jury must be unanimous in its decision to sentence a defendant to death following a murder conviction.

Earlier Thursday morning, the judge held a closed-door hearing to consider whether to grant Kohberger’s request to wear street clothes at all hearings ahead of his trial, rather than standard jail jumpsuits. Defendants are already allowed to wear suits and clothing other than jail attire at trial. Hippler announced at the start of Thursday’s hearing that he granted the defense’s request, adding that he spoke with court security to revise any additional steps that would need to be taken.