Bryan Kohberger trial: Lawyers fight death penalty in fatal knife attacks on University of Idaho students

BOISE, Idaho – Bryan Kohberger’s defense team is trying to take the death penalty off the table.

Kohberger, a former doctor of criminology. student at nearby Washington State University, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in connection with the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

They were killed in an off-campus home in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022.

On Thursday, the suspect’s lawyers will argue that prosecutors’ insistence on the death penalty violates both the constitution and Kohberger’s rights.

The state of Idaho allows execution by firing squad when lethal injection drugs are not available.

Kohberger’s defense team has pointed to this law, saying lethal injection is “not practical.”

“The defense argues that this is the impossibility of making a decision, but the requirement to use a firing squad is a violation of Brian Kohberger’s Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment,” said ABC News Legal Reporter Brian Buckmire.

Last month, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the trial would be moved from Latah County to Boise after the defense filed a motion for a change of venue.

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The defense successfully argued that Kohberger would not have an impartial jury in Moscow – citing extensive media coverage that affected the jury pool.

The trial is scheduled to begin on August 7, 2025 and is expected to last until November 7, 2025.