Law&Crime Sidebar - Slain Idaho Student’s Dad Wants Death Penalty If Bryan Kohberger is Convicted

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

Starting point is 00:00:35 will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. He has to pay for what he's done and it's not just our daughter. It's all the victims he needs to pay justice too. Will prosecutors pursue the death penalty against Brian Koberger in the Idaho 4 murder case, DA and former law professor Stephen Mulroy discusses. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Thank you for coming today. Last night, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, detectives arrested 28-year-old Brian, Christopher,

Starting point is 00:01:22 Kohlberger, in Albrightville, Pennsylvania, on a warrant for murder of Heath, Zana, Madison, and Kaylee. I want to personally thank these agencies for their assistance in this case. As we've been reporting here on sidebar in the long crime network, Brian Coburger has been arrested and charged in connection with the Idaho for killing, specifically the alleged murders of the University of Idaho students, Kaylee Gonzalez, Madison Mogan, Zanerner Kernodal, and Ethan Chapin, who were found stabbed to death on November 13th.

Starting point is 00:01:57 Coburger was extradited back to Idaho from Pennsylvania where he was arrested. He appeared before a judge during his first appearance where he was asked some preliminary questions. He was read the charges that he now faces of four counts of first degree murder and felony burglary. His next hearing is a status conference on January 12th. But as we have been saying, this is a new chapter in this case because right now, the question that is coming up is could prosecutors seek the death penalty?

Starting point is 00:02:24 Well, Kaylee Gonzalez's parents said on News Nation with Ashley Banfield that they're in favor of it. I'm assuming that you are in favor of the death penalty for this defendant. If our daughters could switch places with him, and I'm saying Maddie as my daughter, we're doing a heartbeat. If they could sit there and have three squares, a place to live, and we could call them. We could write them letters. They could watch TV. They could get educated. I would love if Maddie and Kaylee were doing life in prison right now.

Starting point is 00:02:54 yeah so at least we could talk to them that's not they'd be breathing a punishment equivalent to being killed that's god's role and if you want to play god's role then you're going to have to you're going to have to go answer to him so will prosecutors pursue the death penalty against coburger and what a jury vote in favor of it well let me bring in stephen mulroy elected district attorney of shelby county memphis tennessee a former law professor from the university of memphis and former federal prosecutor. He is an expert on the death penalty. Steve, thanks so much for taking the time. Oh, thank you for having me. So I'll start with the big one. Do you think prosecutors are going to pursue the death penalty against Coburg? I wouldn't be surprised. Idaho is a relatively,

Starting point is 00:03:36 I think, pro-death penalty jurisdiction. And under the law of Idaho, first-degree murder is a death penalty eligible offense. Now, the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst. So not any first-degree murder would necessarily be the kind of of case where you would seek the death penalty. But the statutes list aggravating factors. And one of them is if multiple murders are involved in the same incident, which we seem to have here. Do you think it's also the high profile nature of this case that if it wasn't so high profile, maybe it would be different. I mean, people are seeking justice. They want justice. It's a terrible case. Do you think the media impact of it, the high profile nature of it has an

Starting point is 00:04:16 impact on the death penalty? Well, ideally, it shouldn't make a difference, right? Jesse, I mean, the idea is the prosecutor's supposed to look at the facts and the law and the circumstances and not consider any political pressure or the presence or absence of media attention. But, you know, everyone or human beings. And inevitably, I think that kind of pressure might play a role. What about the reasons? One thing that came out from this affidavit was a lot of how they were able to track him down, the evidence that supported a, uh, an arrest of him. What we didn't totally get was the why. Right. And, and I'm. curious if we don't ever understand why he did that. Do you think that plays into a

Starting point is 00:04:55 factor as well? Well, you know, it's the big question that everyone's wondering, right? And I'm not even sure a law enforcement knows right now what the motive for the killing was. The motive for the killing certainly can play a role in whether the death penalty is sought or a jury votes in favor of the death penalty. For example, murder for hire as a motive. That's one of the listed statutory aggravating factors. That would definitely tilt towards the death penalty. But you know, you don't need to know the murder. As long as you know that this person intentionally killed for people, then that would be enough, I think, to get pretty decent argument for a jury to vote in favor of the death penalty. You'd mention that Idaho is a death penalty jurisdiction. I did

Starting point is 00:05:35 some quick research on it. My count is that there are currently eight residents under the death penalty sentence in Idaho. Most recently is Jonathan Daniel Renfro, who was received this sentence in November 2017. He was convicted of first degree murder for the shooting death of a police officer. So I'm curious in your experience from what you've seen, how likely would it be if a death penalty circumstance goes in front of a jury in Idaho that a jury would vote in favor of it? I think there'd be a pretty decent chance, in particular in a case like this, you have multiple murders. You know, Idaho is a fairly pro-death penalty jurisdiction. I imagine that your average jurors would be as well. So I think there's probably a decent chance that if the prosecutors

Starting point is 00:06:18 sought the death penalty, they'd be able to achieve it. Now, of course, when, if ever, the execution would actually be carried out is a whole different question. You know, there are many years, sometimes decades of appeals. Very often you have people on death row who die on death row. All right, so we'll have to wait and see. Stephen Mulroy, thanks for taking the time. And that's all we have for here on Sidebar, everybody.

Starting point is 00:06:41 Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - Slain Idaho Student’s Dad Wants Death Penalty If Bryan Kohberger is Convicted

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