Kohberger pleads guilty in Idaho student murders

[RonT (aka Ombligo)]

Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to all counts in the killings of four University of Idaho students, sparing him from the death penalty, according to a letter sent to victims' family members informing them of the plea deal.

Kohberger -- who was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in connection with the 2022 killings of roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle and Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin -- will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on the murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count, according to the plea agreement.

He will waive all right to appeal, the agreement said.


https://abcnews.go.com/US/bryan-kohberge...=123356808


Justice is served and the families are spared years of trials and appeals.

[special]

what a monster.

[RAMd®d]

Apparently the important thing is — the State saves the cost of a trial.

[tenders]

Apparently the important thing is — the State saves the cost of a trial.

And also the uncertainty of what could happen in a trial. The odds that one death penalty holdout surfaces in a jury, for whatever motivation, is not zero.

[special]

yeah, if I were him, I would go to trial. What difference it makes if you get 4 consecutive life sentences or the death penalty? same thing.

[PeterB]

The whole thing is a bit weird -- I feel like we're missing some important information, like that there was a true smoking gun that we all didn't know about.  Apparently (from the article), the defense approached the prosecutors looking for a deal -- to me, that suggests that the defense was presented with some additional smoking gun-type evidence.  (The DNA evidence in of itself isn't, to me, a smoking gun... there have been cases of mistaken identity of DNA, and also you can make arguments about trace contact or contamination.  This being said, of course, he's likely guilty... it's just that they hadn't proven it.)

Also, I don't recall there being much in the way of suggested motive -- he had apparently been in contact with some of the women by Instagram, but that by itself doesn't prove anything.  There's also been some suggestion that he did this to impress a former professor.  And there's also been the suggestion of mental illness, in which case the death penalty should really have been off the table anyway.