Attorneys for the defendant in the killings of four University of Idaho students claim that their 30-year-old client's autism poses "an unconscionable risk that he will be executed because of his disability rather than his culpability," CNN reports. The recently unsealed defense motion in the capital murder case against Bryan Kohberger offers the most detailed picture of the suspect’s personality to emerge since his arrest in the brutal 2022 killings. Kohberger displays “extremely rigid thinking, perseverates on specific topics, processes information on a piece-meal basis, struggles to plan ahead” and “demonstrates little insight into his own behaviors and emotions,” the filing notes, citing a medical evaluation commissioned by his attorneys. Thus, they argue, executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment because "due to his [autism spectrum disorder], Mr. Kohberger simply cannot comport himself in a manner that aligns with societal expectations of normalcy." Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty at his trial, which is scheduled for August.
The newly unsealed filing is the latest in a flurry of defense motions aimed at taking the death penalty off the table for the only suspect in the fatal stabbings that horrified the small college community of Moscow. In one filing, the defense said the DNA found under one of the victims' fingernails came from three unknown people not including Kohberger, CNN reported. In a motion filed last Monday, the defense asked that the DNA evidence be kept from the jury in Kohberger’s upcoming death penalty trial because jurors could believe the DNA is Kohberger’s, and according to the defense, it is not. “Allowing such testimony would violate Mr. Kohberger’s Federal and State Constitutional rights to due process, a fair trial, effective assistance of counsel, and confrontation of witnesses,” argues Bicka Barlow, an attorney specializing in forensic DNA evidence who was added to the defense’s legal team recently.
Comments