Bryan Kohberger was outspoken about his support of the death penalty before he murdered four University of Idaho students.
Court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Tuesday, August 19, revealed that Kohberger allegedly discussed capital punishment in one of his Washington State University classes while pursuing his PhD. According to the docs, Kohberger was the “only” member of his class in support of the death penalty.
Kohberger asked one of his fellow students whether she would support the death penalty if “her 12-year-old daughter was raped and murdered,” per the docs.
Details about Kohberger’s case have continued to emerge more than one month after the 30-year-old convicted killer accepted a plea deal in order to avoid the death penalty.
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Kohberger broke into a house in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022, and fatally stabbed college students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. He was arrested one month later.
Initially, Kohberger pleaded not guilty to the murders. Last month, as part of his deal, he pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison for the crimes.
A trial would have begun this month if Kohberger hadn’t accepted the plea deal. Idaho prosecutor Bill Thompson confirmed in an interview following Kohberger’s sentencing that the prosecution would have sought the death penalty had the case gone to trial.
“This certainly was a case where the death penalty was appropriate,” he told The Idaho Statesman late last month. “If we ended up going through trial into a penalty phase, I think under the law it met the elements.”
He was also confident Kohberger would be convicted had the case gone to trial.
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“Our thought is that this case is on track for trial, and if that’s where it goes, that’s where it’s going to go,” Thompson shared. “And we’re going to do our best job to present everything that we believe is legally relevant to help the jury make that decision.”
Thompson, who has been the Latah County Prosecutor since 1992, also addressed widespread criticism about Kohberger’s plea deal.
“I think that we did our job, and we had the opportunity to do it in a way to really give some immediate finality, which wouldn’t have happened if we had to go through trial,” Thompson told the publication. “We’re pleased and relieved that the community and the victims’ families aren’t going to have to continue to live through this and relive this during a trial.”
