An Idaho judge on Tuesday denied 12 motions filed by attorneys for accused college killer Bryan Kohberger to dismiss the death penalty from his case.
District Judge Steven Hippler listened to oral arguments on the motions during a lengthy hearing on November 7, promising to issued a ruling at a later date.
112024 Memorandum Decision Order Death Penalty Motions by kc wildmoon on Scribd
The 55-page ruling lays out the judge’s thinking on each of the 12 motions, which challenged “various aspects of Iadho’s capital punishment scheme,” stating in its introduction that “the Court concludes relief in Defendant’s favor is not warranted on any of the motions.
Hippler rejected arguments that Idaho’s death penalty was too arbitrary, that aggravating factors were invalid, citing international law and standards of decency, and other factors. His detailed ruling noted multiple times that factors the attorneys cited in their motions had already been ruled constitutional and were therefore misplaced in the current motions.
The highly technical ruling citing multiple other cases supporting the judge’s decision.
Less than two weeks after the death penalty motions hearing, Kohberger’s attorneys filed 160 pages of legal justifications to suppress much of the evidence against him, including DNA evidence, evidence from his car and electronic devices, and statements he made after his arrest in December 2022. A hearing on the suppression motions is scheduled for January 23.
Kohberger, then a graduate student in criminology at Washington State Uniersity, is accused of killing four University of Idaho students — Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Koncalves — on November 13, 2022. He was arrested six weeks later at his parents Pennsylvania home and brought back to Idaho to face trial.
The trial was moved earlier this year to Ada County from Latah County, where the murders took place, and is now expected to begin next August.
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[Featured image: Bryan Kohberger/Ada County Sheriff’s Office]
