Judge maintains death penalty as possible punishment for Bryan Kohberger
despite autism diagnosis
[April 25, 2025]
By GENE JOHNSON
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 a rental home near
campus in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Prosecutors have said they intended to seek the death penalty if
Kohberger is convicted at his trial, which is set to begin in August.
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 other 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 U.S.
Constitution.
Prosecutors argued that under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the only
mental disability that precludes imposition of the death penalty is an
intellectual disability — and Kohberger’s diagnosis was of mild autism
“without accompanying intellectual ... impairment.”
The judge agreed.
“Not only has Defendant failed to show that ASD is equivalent to an
intellectual disability for death penalty exemption purposes, he has not
shown there is national consensus against subjecting individuals with
ASD to capital punishment,” Hippler wrote. “ASD may be mitigating factor
to be weighed against the aggravating factors in determining if
defendant should receive the death penalty, but it is not (a)
death-penalty disqualifier.”
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Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington
State University, in Pullman, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from
Moscow, at the time of the killings. He was arrested in Pennsylvania
weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic
material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
Autopsies showed the four victims were all likely asleep when they
were attacked, some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed
multiple times.
Following Kohberger's arrest, his attorneys had him examined by a
clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Rachel Orr, who diagnosed him with
with “Autism Spectrum Disorder, level 1, without accompanying
intellectual or language impairment.”
In a separate ruling Thursday, the judge agreed that jurors will
likely be able to hear much of the 911 call made from outside the
house by two surviving roommates roughly eight hours after the
killings, as they realized one of their roommates wasn’t waking up.
However, statements made during that call by an unidentified woman
who relayed information she had not observed first-hand will be
barred from the trial, Hippler said.
Jurors will also be able to see text messages the two surviving
roommates sent around the time of the attack, after 4 a.m., when one
reported seeing a masked man in the house, the judge said, assuming
prosecutors can lay a foundation for the admission of the evidence.
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