How Idaho Murders Suspect Bryan Kohberger Is Trying to Avoid Possible Death Sentence

Bryan Kohberger faces four counts of murder in connection with the November 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Bryan Kohberger faces four counts of murder in connection with the November 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students — and if convicted, the former criminology Ph.D student could face the death penalty.

On Thursday, Nov. 7, Kohberger appeared in court in Boise, Idaho, for a hearing that will determine whether he will get a death sentence if convicted in the brutal stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, of which he's accused. The killings happened nearly two years ago on Nov. 13, 2022, at an off-campus residence in the college town of Moscow, Idaho.

Kohberger’s defense team is fighting against capital punishment, arguing that the firing squad method of execution is a “cruel and unusual punishment,” NBC News and Fox News reports.

Idaho's current method of execution is lethal injection and the state has not executed anyone since Richard Leavitt’s death by lethal injection in 2012, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.

In response to Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler asking if the anxiety of not knowing how long Kohberger would be on death row is also unconstitutional, Ann Taylor, Kohberger’s public defender said, “It is anxiety. It is fear. It is the not knowing,” NBC News reports. Taylor also suggested in court that if her client is convicted, the jury — and not the judge — should decide whether Kohberger will receive a death sentence. But is that possible?

“I think it's highly unlikely that the trial judge takes the death penalty off the table, but the defense is taking a kitchen sink approach, throwing everything on the table, not because they think that the trial judge will buy it, or even that the jury will not issue a death sentence if Kohberger is convicted,” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, tells PEOPLE.

“They're looking at the appellate courts, and in any death penalty case, there are mandatory state and federal appeals, and it's actually statistically more likely to get a death sentence overturned on appeal," he adds.

Monroe County Correctional Facility via Getty

Rahmani emphasizes that the “Hail Mary-type arguments” are going to be rejected, but by raising them, the defense has “preserved them for appeal.”

“You just need one appellate judge, state or federal, to buy one of these arguments, and you might save his life years down the road,” he says.

Referring to the death penalty and the means of execution, which have been upheld by the Supreme Court, Rahmani says: “There's been some exceptions if someone's a minor, if someone is intellectually disabled or mentally unwell. But someone like Bryan Kohberger, an adult who is competent, quite relatively sophisticated, frankly, compared to some other criminal defendants, there's no way these arguments are going to work.”

Investigators allege they tied Kohberger to the brutal slayings by using DNA evidence found on a knife sheath left at the scene in the bed where Mogen and Goncalves were found deceased, according to a probable cause affidavit previously reviewed by PEOPLE.

Courtesy of Chapin Family; Maddie Mogen/Instagram; Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram; Xana Kernodle/Instagram

According to the affidavit, Kohberger's phone allegedly pinged 12 times in the area of the 1122 King Road home where the killings took place on at least twelve occasions prior to November 13, 2022.

Kohberger was a criminology Ph.D student at Washington State University and lived in Pullman, Wash., roughly eight miles away from the scene of the crime, at the time of the slayings. He has pleaded not guilty.

Kohberger’s defense attorney claimed in a previous court filing that he was driving late at night "as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars," the filing reads.

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It also states that Kohberger was an avid runner and hiker, but adds that his hiking and running decreased during the school year, but "his nighttime drives increased."

A judge ruled in September that Kohberger’s trial will be moved from Latah County to Ada County, citing the “close-knit community” of Moscow and possibly “prejudicial” media coverage, according to the order previously reviewed by PEOPLE.

An order issued by the state of Idaho says Kohberger's trial is scheduled for Aug. 11 to Nov. 7, 2025.