Kohberger Defense Team Handed Massive Defeat: Judge Rules Autism Won't Save Him from Potential Death Penalty
The man accused of murdering four university students in 2022 could still be facing death himself.
Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, on trial for the savage stabbings in a rental home near the University of Idaho campus, cited a clinical neuropsychologist’s finding that their client is on the autism spectrum in asking District Judge Steven Hippler to rule out the possibility of capital punishment if Kohberg is convicted, according to the Associated Press.
And after a slew of earlier attempts to exclude the death penalty, according to the Idaho Statesman, it might have been their last chance.
Judge rules prosecutors can seek death penalty against Bryan Kohberger if convicted of Idaho student murders — despite autism diagnosis https://t.co/xSKl4rCJqa pic.twitter.com/WKvc8PvT7T
— New York Post (@nypost) April 25, 2025
According to the AP, Kohberger has been diagnosed as having “Autism Spectrum Disorder, level 1, without accompanying intellectual or language impairment.”
Kohberger’s attorneys argued that should make him ineligible for execution under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Prosecutors maintained that even with the autism diagnosis, Supreme Court precedents indicated that only mental disabilities that involve intellectual ability could put the death penalty off the table.
At the time of the Nov. 13, 2022, killings, Kohberger was a graduate student in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, just across the state line from the University of Idaho’s campus in Moscow, Idaho.
He was arrested — after being under surveillance for several days — in northeast Pennsylvania after traveling to his parents’ home for a holiday trip. Charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary, he’s pleaded innocent in the case.
Hippler’s ruling kept capital punishment in play in the case, but said it should be a matter to be decided after the question of guilt or innocence is resolved in court.
“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 in the order.
“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.”
Hippler’s order also dismissed a defense argument that extensive media coverage that referred to Kohberger traits that could be linked to autism — such as his “deadpan look,” “robot-like walk,” “cold iciness, “rigid posture” — made it impossible that any decision on punishment would be fair to the defendant.
“He argues the media is demonizing him for his disability while at the same time emphasizing the brutality of the crime,” Hippler wrote. “This, he warns, will overpower any mitigating arguments based on ASD and poses risk that he will be sentenced based on his disability.”
However, Hippler noted, the effect of media coverage could be dealt with during jury selection, during Kohberger’s trial, and during any penalty phase.
According to the Idaho Statesman, the autism disability argument was one of several the defense team has offered to try to get a potential death penalty removed from the case.
Their efforts have “included arguments that capital punishment is unconstitutional, breaks with evolving standards of decency, violates international law and is arbitrarily applied,” but Hippler has denied each one, the newspaper reported.
It noted that the latest effort was “likely” the last.
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