Attorneys for the man charged with murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022 asked a judge Thursday to take the death penalty off the table as the case heads to trial.
Anne Taylor, a defense attorney for 29-year-old Bryan Kohberger, told a judge the anxiety about the method of potential execution would be ‘cruel and unusual.’
“There’s a constitutional issue with having someone sit on death row when there is no meaningful way for them to be executed,” Taylor said in court.
Idaho has two methods for execution – lethal injection and the firing squad. Taylor claimed the firing squad has never been found to be constitutional and cited a recent execution by lethal injection that was called off in Idaho.
“I think to have him sit on death row and say, ‘Idaho is going figure out how to kill you at some point in the future in a way that isn’t cruel and unusual and in violation of your rights,’ I just don’t think the constitutional protections allow that to happen,” Taylor said.
Kohberger’s trial is scheduled for next summer when he’ll have to answer for allegations that he broke into a house near the University of Idaho campus in November 2022 and murdered Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin.
Prosecutors announced earlier this year they would seek the death penalty against Kohberger.
“Deciding the method of execution is not deciding the sentence,” Nye said. “It may be lethal injection, it may be some other method. We don’t know enough now to spend time debating what we will know in the future.”
Judge Steven Hippler said he would consider the arguments presented by both sides and issue a written ruling after Thursday's hearing.
“The reality is if he is convicted, we know it’s going to be a decade-plus before that sentence is carried out,” Hippler said. “Who knows what the methods will be then.”
Kohberger's attorneys won a change in venue for the case, which was moved from Moscow, Idaho, to Boise in September. His trial is currently scheduled to run from August to November of 2025.
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Jeremy Harris
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