A judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors can pursue the death penalty against Bryan Kohberger if he is convicted of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022, despite the defendant's recent autism diagnosis. Kohberger, 30, is charged in the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves at home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. Prosecutors said they intended to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted at his trial, which is scheduled to begin in August, the AP reports.
But his attorneys asked Judge Steven Hippler to remove the death penalty as a possible punishment, citing Kohberger's diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. They have also filed several motions challenging the death penalty, including one based on purported violations by the state in providing evidence. "Mr. Kohberger's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reduces his culpability, negates the retributive and deterrent purposes of capital punishment, and exposes him to the unacceptable risk that he will be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death," defense attorneys wrote in court papers. They argued that executing someone with autism would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution.
Prosecutors argued that under US Supreme Court precedent, the only mental disability that precludes imposition of the death penalty is an intellectual disability—and that Kohberger's diagnosis was of mild autism "without accompanying intellectual . . . impairment." Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks after the slayings. Autopsies showed the four slain were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds, and each was stabbed multiple times.
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