Death penalty hearing to examine whether suspect poses ‘ongoing threat’

by Junna Base November 7, 2024

Whether the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students can face the death penalty if convicted will be the subject of a scheduled hearing Thursday, less than a week before the campus community marks the second anniversary of the murders .

A judge in Boise, where the trial is scheduled to begin in early August, will consider arguments from Latah County prosecutors and Bryan Kohberger’s defense team about the merits of the death penalty and whether the suspect poses a future danger to others.

Prosecutors have said in court filings that there are four aggravating factors in the case against Kohberger, who turns 30 later this month, that make the crime more serious and warrant the death penalty. They say there are multiple victims; the murders were “particularly heinous, cruel or cruel”; the suspect showed “complete disregard for human life”; and he has “a propensity for murder that is likely to pose a continuing threat to society,” the filing said.

But defense attorney Jay Logsdon, a public defender qualified to co-lead a death penalty case, urged the judge to deny the state’s death penalty request, in part because he said executing Kohberger by lethal injection would violate his right to freedom hurt from cruel and unusual punishment.

The defense has also suggested that if Kohberger is found guilty, there would be a special phase in which the jury would have to decide whether he would then be eligible for the death penalty, an additional step that prosecutors want to refuse.

In another filing last month, Logsdon disputed the state’s assertion that there was a “future dangerousness factor” in the Kohberger case.

“Aggravators should decide which first-degree murderers deserve the death penalty. Future Dangerousness does not do that – it focuses on the person, not the act,” the defense wrote.

Although the death penalty remains in effect in Idaho, it is no longer valid since it was last carried out in 2012; The state, like many others, had problems obtaining lethal injections. In 2023, Republican Governor Brad Little signed a law allowing execution by firing squad as an alternative method.

Idaho has now procured the necessary medication. In February, inmate Thomas Creech, convicted of five murders in three states, was scheduled to be executed after spending nearly half a century behind bars. But the state abandoned the execution after prison staff failed to set up an IV line, highlighting the difficulties in carrying out the death penalty.

Another execution attempt by Creech, 74, is scheduled for Nov. 13 — coincidentally, the same day the four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed in an off-campus apartment building in 2022.

Kohberger was arrested more than a month after the murders of the four students – roommates Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well as Kernodle’s friend Ethan Chapin, 20. Kohberger lived in nearby Pullman, Washington, and was subsequently a graduate student at Washington State University.

In May 2023, a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf to four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Authorities have not publicly confirmed a motive, and a gag order has prevented many involved from speaking out.

Prosecutors say they expect to make a presentation at trial DNA evidence, cell phone usage details and security videos link Kohberger to the crime.

Kohberger’s defense has suggested that he frequently took late-night drives and that cell tower data would show he was doing so miles away when the four students were killed.

Next summer’s trial was moved from Latah County to the Idaho capital of Boise after the defense successfully argued that the possibility of bias among potential jurors was high and the local community did not have the resources for such highly anticipated proceedings.

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