Idaho judge rules Bryan Kohberger can still face death penalty, despite recent autism diagnosis

An Idaho judge on Thursday ruled Bryan Kohberger’s recent autism diagnosis does not preclude him from facing the death penalty if he’s convicted of killing four University of Idaho students.

Kohberger, 30, is charged with the first-degree murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were all found stabbed to death in an off-campus Moscow home in November 2022.

Kohberger, who prosecutors say is tied to the crimes through DNA evidence, already has filed multiple motions urging Ada County Judge Steven Hippler to take the death penalty off the table. Most recently, his defense team has argued Kohberger’s recent autism diagnosis creates an exemption to the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. Executing people with mental disabilities was made illegal in the U.S. following a 2002 ruling by the Supreme Court from a case based out of Virginia.

Kohberger was handed a low-level autism diagnosis by the defense team’s neuropsychologist, court records say, “without accompanying intellectual or language impairment.” The neuropsychologist noted he was polite and engaged in conversations, but his speech was repetitive and scripted, according to court records. Kohberger also “demonstrated rigidity” in his thoughts and behaviors, wanted to know the results of his cognitive tests and was “highly” interested in topics like forensic psychology and the Japanese author Haruki Murakami, who often writes about loneliness and self-realizations.

Hippler found that Kohberger’s low-level diagnosis does not meet the standard of “intellectually disabled” from psychologists and previous court rulings, court records say, that no court has found autism to be a death-disqualifying diagnosis and there is no “national consensus” on the matter.

Hippler noted that in order to be less culpable than the “average criminal,” the person must have a subaverage intellectual function and significant limitations in everyday skill sets. Kohberger has an IQ of 119, court documents show, and showed strong cognitive abilities like reasoning, reading skills and concept formation.

It’s what led Hippler to refer to Kohberger’s association of autism with a severe intellectual disability as an “apples to oranges comparison.”

“While intellectually disabled and ASD individuals may share some of the same adaptive impairments, the intellectual deficit – an essential feature of an intellectual disability – is not a diagnostic element of ASD,” Hippler wrote in his ruling. He referenced that the medical community typically refers to IQs below 70 and 75 to be below-average intellectual function.

Even if Hippler ruled against Kohberger’s motion, the defense still asked for the death penalty to be thrown out because of the excessive media coverage on the issue, since news sources have pointed out Kohberger’s demeanor before the homicides. Hippler ruled against that request, too. There is no precedent for media coverage, and any concerns about bias can be mitigated through jury selection, Hippler wrote.

Kohberger is set to face trial starting Aug. 11.