Court weighs Kohberger death penalty arguments

Bryan Kohberger’s attorneys made their arguments Thursday for striking down the death penalty in the Moscow quadruple murder case.

Ada County District Judge Steven Hippler heard their arguments during a court hearing in Boise and will later issue a written opinion on the matter.

Kohberger’s team brought a variety of arguments to the table, including that Idaho cannot properly carry out the death penalty, the death penalty violates standards of decency and that it even conflicts with international law.

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the November 2022 stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. He could face the death penalty if convicted. His trial is scheduled for August 2025.

Kohberger’s attorney Anne Taylor used the case of Thomas Creech, an Idaho inmate convicted of murder, as an example that Idaho cannot properly carry out the death penalty.

Idaho halted Creech’s first execution attempt in February after the medical team failed to find a vein to deliver the lethal injection. A second attempt at Creech’s execution was scheduled for next Wednesday, but a federal judge granted Creech a stay this week to consider Creech’s claims that prosecutors acted improperly during his clemency hearing, the Associated Press reported.

Taylor said Idaho’s inability to carry out lethal injection in that case means the death penalty should be struck down, and she added that it is “dehumanizing” for an inmate to sit on death row while they wait for the state to fix its execution methods. She also said Idaho does not yet have the means to execute someone with a firing squad as an alternative.

Hippler pointed out that Idaho had the means to execute Creech, it just could not find a vein. The Department of Correction announced last month it will use central venous catheter if the medical team again struggles to find a vein.

Jeff Nye, a deputy attorney general working for the prosecution, said it is too soon to strike down the death penalty for this reason. If Kohberger is convicted, it could be at least a decade before he is executed. By that time, Idaho may have a new method of execution.

“It may be lethal injection, it may not,” Nye said. “It may be some other method.”

Hippler said that if the defense challenges a method of execution in a case, it is required to suggest an alternative means of execution, which it has not.

Kohberger’s team also argued that the factors a jury has to consider when deciding on the death penalty are too broad and vague.

Taylor argued that the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for criminals who are the “worst of the worst.” For example, the jury is supposed to decide if the criminal is a future danger to society and if the crime is heinous, atrocious and cruel.

Kohberger’s attorney Jay Logsdon argued that the vagueness in these factors make it seem like every murder charge could have the death penalty attached to it.

The prosecution argued that Idaho Supreme Court rulings support these factors, and that juries will be instructed how to distinguish which of these factors apply to the Kohberger case.

The defense also went as far as arguing the death penalty should be abolished because it violates contemporary standards of decency.

Nye argued that because 27 states still have the death penalty on their books, the country is nowhere near a national consensus on whether the death penalty is immoral, improper or indecent.

Logsdon argued it violates international law, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, Hippler stated this argument has “fallen as flat as you expected.”

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.