() An Idaho judge struck down another effort by Bryan Kohberger’s defense team to take the death penalty off the table in the 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students.
Kohberger’s lawyers filed a motion asking Judge Steven Hippler to sanction prosecutors for failing to turn over evidence by removing the death penalty as a sentencing option.
Hippler denied the request Tuesday and said the sanctions are “not warranted” because there was no violation by prosecutors in the discovery process.
“In the cases cited by Defendant where the courts have struck the death penalty as a sentencing option, the defendant had demonstrated that the prosecution either willfully or inadvertently (but with extreme resulting prejudice) violated discovery obligations. Here, however, Defendant has not established discovery violation,” Hippler wrote.
The judge also denied a request from Kohberger’s defense team to impose organizational requirements on the state and said prosecutors have taken “reasonable steps” to provide evidence.
Bryan Kohberger’s defense attempts to avoid death penalty
The decision marked the 13th time he has ruled against the defense’s attempt to remove the death penalty from Kohberger’s case, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Hippler denied a separate effort by Kohberger’s defense last week, which cited Kohberger’s autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.
Idaho is the only state to have a firing squad as its primary method of execution after Gov. Brad Little signed legislation into law earlier this year.
The firing squad law takes effect in July 2026.
Jury selection in Bryan Kohberger case scheduled for end of July
Kohberger, 30, is charged in the deaths of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.
Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, about 10 miles from Moscow, at the time of the killings. He was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
Jury selection in the case is expected to begin July 30. The trial is slated for Aug. 11 in Boise, Idaho.
