Bryan Kohberger is fighting to have the death penalty taken off the table in Idaho’s murder trial as he faces a firing squad

Lawyers for Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger are fighting to impose the death penalty in his high-profile case, arguing that the state has “no real means” to execute a convicted prisoner and that the so-called methods – which include an “inhumane” firing squad as an alternative – are “arbitrary” and “unconstitutional”.

Kohberger, 29, a former Washington State University criminology student accused of slaughtering four University of Idaho students in their off-campus home in November 2022, could be sentenced to death if convicted at his trial next summer of the murders is convicted.

The case of the shocking murders that rocked the small town of Moscow was recently moved to Boise after the defense successfully argued that Kohberger would not have an impartial jury in the tight-knit community because extensive media coverage could narrow the jury pool would affect.

Kohberger, dressed in a dark suit, blue shirt and tie, appeared in the Ada County courtroom Thursday with his defense team, who argued that their client could face being shot by firing squad if convicted under Idaho law. as there is a shortage of lethal injections in the area.

“I don’t think our Constitution allows us to go ahead and keep him on death row for many years when the way Idaho is doing it now isn’t really working,” said Kohberger’s public defender, Ann Taylor Richter.

“I don’t think it’s a realistic option to let him sit on death row and say that Idaho is going to figure out how to kill you at some point in the future in a way that’s not cruel and unusual and doesn’t constitute a violation of the law. “,” she added.

Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler, who was recently assigned to the case, asked Taylor: “So you’re saying that fear of not knowing is a violation of the Constitution?”

“It’s fear. It’s fear,” she replied. “It’s the not knowing.”

She argued that Idaho currently lacks the ability to execute inmates on death row, so leaving a person on death row without the ability to execute them is “dehumanizing.”

Latah County prosecutors responded to the defense argument, pointing out that the current method of execution in Idaho is lethal injection and that it is, in fact, available.

“You don’t know decades from now what an alternative might be, maybe decades from now they’ll have a better argument for the method of execution because maybe there will be another method,” said Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Nye, arguing that those methods of execution should be that Don’t take the death sentence off the table.

“You don’t get to short-circuit the whole thing at the beginning and say death is off the table because the current method is unconstitutional,” Nye said, adding, “That doesn’t mean there won’t be death in decades “Method to kill him.”

Idaho, one of 27 U.S. states that allow the death penalty, currently allows killing by lethal injection and, since last year, shooting by firing squad.

After hearing arguments from both the prosecution and defense, Judge Hippler said he would deliberate on the matter and issue a written decision at a later date.

Judge Hippler also ruled on an earlier motion, allowing Kohberger to wear traditional court attire instead of a prison jumpsuit at preliminary hearings.

Kohberger’s attorney filed the motion last month, citing a 1976 Supreme Court decision that said forcing a defendant to wear a prison uniform in court could adversely affect whether a jury is chosen found him guilty of alleged crimes.

The former criminology Ph.D. The student has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the fatal knife attacks on Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, whose bodies were found in their off-campus home in November 2022 pleaded guilty.

Kohberger was arrested about six weeks later and charged with the murders.

His trial is scheduled to begin in August 2025 and is expected to last until November 2025.