Idaho college murders: Death penalty hearing to examine whether suspect is 'continuing threat'
Whether the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students can be punished with the death penalty if convicted will be the focus of a planned hearing Thursday.
Whether the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students can be punished with the death penalty if convicted will be the focus of a planned hearing Thursday, less than a week before the campus community will mark two years since the killings.
A judge in Boise, where the trial is set to begin in early August, will consider arguments from Latah County prosecutors and Bryan Kohberger's defense team over the merits of capital punishment and whether the suspect poses a future danger to others.
Prosecutors have said in court filings that four aggravating factors exist in the case against Kohberger, who turns 30 later this month, making the crime more severe and the death penalty warranted. They are that there are multiple victims; the murders were "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel"; the suspect exhibited "utter disregard for human life"; and he has "a propensity to commit murder which will probably constitute a continuing threat to society," according to the filing.
But defense lawyer Jay Logsdon, a public defender who is qualified to co-lead a death penalty case, asked the judge to strike the state's death penalty request, in part, because he said executing Kohberger by lethal injection would violate his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
The defense has also suggested allowing for a special phase if Kohberger is found guilty that would require the jury to determine if he is then eligible for capital punishment, an extra step that prosecutors want denied.
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