Bryan Kohberger should face the death penalty if convicted of murdering four University of Idaho students, prosecutors have told a judge.
Only 26 people have been executed in Idaho since the state introduced capital punishment in 1864. The death penalty is now carried out by lethal injection. The state legislature passed a law in 2023 that allowed a firing squad if lethal injection drugs are not available.
Although prosecutors have previously said they wanted the death penalty, their latest filing is in response to a defense request that the death penalty be ruled out.
In 13 legal briefs submitted on Friday, the prosecution rejected claims that the public did not favor the death penalty.
Bryan Kohberger attends a hearing in Latah County District Court in Moscow, Idaho, on September 13, 2023. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted of murdering four University of Idaho students.
Ted S. Warren/Getty Images
“The crux of the defendant’s argument is that there has been a major shift in public opinion regarding the morality, decency, and humanity of the death penalty,” according to a filing by prosecutor Bill Thompson and special assistant attorney general Ingrid Batey, The Columbian newspaper in Washington state reported.
The prosecutors also pointed out that a majority of U.S. states have the penalty, despite defense claims that it was out of step with modern social norms.
“The court should deny the defendant’s motion because this is an issue that has already been ruled upon by the Idaho Supreme Court,” the prosecution added. “Defendant is asking this court to ignore Idaho precedent as well as precedent set by the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Newsweek sought email comment on Monday from Kohberger’s attorney and from the Latah County district attorney’s office.
Kohberger, 29, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection with the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four University of Idaho students were found dead in an off-campus home on November 13, 2022.
Kohberger was hiking or star gazing that night, his lawyers have now claimed in court.
A defense affidavit filed in court in April states that Kohberger told his lawyers he “was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars.
He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park.”
He is in custody without bond at the Ada County Jail in Boise.
At the defense’s request over concerns of local juror bias in the community where the crime took place, the prior judge granted a venue change for Kohberger’s trial. The Idaho Supreme Court moved the case from Moscow to Boise.
