Bryan Kohberger not likely to be able to avoid the death penalty if convicted of Idaho student murders

Left: Bryan Kohberger; Top Right: Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Bottom Right: Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen

Murder suspect Bryan Kohberger appears in a mugshot; the four victims of the Idaho University Student murder case appear in images supplied by the Kernodle family (Left: Bryan Kohberger; Top Right: Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Bottom Right: Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen)

There is little chance that Bryan Kohberger will avoid the death penalty if convicted of killing four Idaho college students in their off-campus apartment.  Perpetrators of multiple heinous murders rarely escape that fate in states with capital punishment.

Kohberger is accused of the November 13, 2022, stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. All four were students at the University of Idaho. Kohberger was arrested six weeks after murders at his parent’s home in Pennsylvania. He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

Kohberger’s legal team, in an effort to save his life if convicted, have filed a host of pretrial motions challenging the imposition of the death penalty and manner in which it is carried out.

Recently, an Idaho trial court sitting in Ada County denied all of Kohberger motions as they related to the death penalty.

Kohberger’s defense team had sought to remove the death penalty as a possible punishment. Kohberger’s attorneys argued that forcing inmates to wait for years on death row and the methods available for prisoners to be executed in Idaho both constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Attorneys also argued Idaho’s death penalty laws violate an international treaty banning the torture of prisoners.

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