A judge refused Thursday to rule out the death penalty in the trial of a man accused of fatally stabbing four students from the Idaho University in 2022.
Bryan Kohberger’s defense lawyers had tried to consider capital punishment as an option in their next murder trial, but Judge Steven Hipler denied the request.
Kohberger’s lawyers argued that it was recently discovered that he had a disorder of the autistic spectrum and that the death penalty would be “dehumanizing.”
“No court has considered that ASD is a diagnosis categorically that is discalled by death,” Hipler wrote in the ruling.
He wrote that prosecutors were right in their arguments that the autistic spectrum disorder does not qualify under the law by exemptions for the death penalty under intellectual disabilities, and that there is no national consensus on the subject.
Kohberger is accused of murder and other positions in stabbing four students in a home outside the Moscow campus, Idaho, where most victims lived on November 13, 2022.
He is accused of killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in the three -story home. The authorities have indicated that the students were killed at some point after 4 in the morning, their bodies were discovered later that morning after the roommates could not contact them.
In a separate failure on Thursday in the case, Hippler allowed the 911 call of the surviving roommates on the day the bodies were discovered and texts were discovered in the trial, provided that the appropriate base was placed. Some writings were ordered.
This is a development history. Consult the updates again.
