West
Bryan Kohberger's defense team opposes death penalty: 'Cruel and unusual'
Bryan Kohberger’s defense team is opposing the death penalty for the quadruple Idaho murder suspect on multiple grounds.
Kohberger, 29, is charged with four counts of murder and burglary after he allegedly killed Xana Kernodle, 20; Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Madison Mogen, 21, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Among Kohberger’s defense attorneys’ arguments against the death penalty are their claims that “Idaho has no viable method for killing” in a capital punishment case, the state’s method for obtaining a death penalty punishment is “unconstitutional,” a capital murder case cannot be prepared in 10 months, and the death penalty violates the “prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.”
Executing Kohberger “by means of lethal injection or a gunshot as conceived of by the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) would violate his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment and his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” his attorneys wrote.
BRYAN KOHBERGER RETURNS TO IDAHO COURT TO ARGUE FOR CHANGE OF VENUE HEARNG IN STUDENT MURDERS CASE
Bryan Kohberger appears in court in Moscow, Idaho, on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Kohberger appeared in court in an attempt to overturn his grand jury indictment for the 2022 murders of four college students in their home. (Kai Eiselein/Pool)
They also argue that death by firing squad, which is the second legal execution method in Idaho after lethal injection, “is not and was never constitutional.”
SIGN UP TO GET THE TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER
In other documents filed Thursday, Kohberger’s defense states that “punishment which does not comport with the evolving standards of a modern, civilized society is cruel and unusual.”
BRYAN KOHBERGER TRIAL SET TO BEGIN JUNE 2025 IN IDAHO MURDERS CASE
Bryan Christopher Kohberger arrives at Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 3, 2023, before waiving extradition to Idaho to face murder charges in the stabbing deaths of four university students. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“The vast majority of modern, civilized society has already abolished capital punishment because the execution of human beings by governments is recognized to be a violation of the dignity and spirit of human beings,” his attorneys wrote. “The institutional killing of civilian prisoners affronts the modern, civilized world. The United States has been routinely condemned by the international community for continuing to execute its own people.”
GET REAL TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB
Meanwhile, prosecutors have argued that the state is trying to enforce Idaho law that says “a jury is entitled to decide not only guilt but potential penalty.”
KOHBERGER DEATH PENALTY WOULD COST $1M MORE THAN LIFE IN PRISON: REPORT
Investigators set up outside the home where four University of Idaho students were slain in November 2022 in Moscow, Idaho, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“We are simply trying to fulfill our responsibilities under the law. To characterize it as the State is trying, is wanting, is trying to kill someone, is just simply appealing to raw emotion, and it has no place in this courtroom,” prosecutors previously stated.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
The defendant — a 29-year-old former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington — is accused of stabbing the four University of Idaho students with a KA-BAR-style knife in their home near campus in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, a Sunday.
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Kohberger was arrested in late December 2022 at his family’s home in Pennsylvania.
His trial is scheduled to take place no later than the summer of 2025.
Read the full article from Here
Washington
Police finish DoorDash delivery after arresting driver in New Jersey
WASHINGTON TWP., N.J. — Officers in Washington Township, said they finished a DoorDash food delivery after arresting the driver who had warrants out for his arrest.
Body camera video shows officers stepping in to deliver the food themselves, a move the department in southern New Jersey later shared on its Facebook page.
“I thought something happened. Oh my God, I got so scared,” said the customer when she answered the door.
The DoorDash customer, seen on police body cam video, was instantly relieved and appreciative upon learning why officers were at her door.
“Arrested your driver, but, yeah, we delivered your food,” one of the officers said.
It turns out a Washington Township police officer stopped the DoorDash driver during routine patrols in front of a high school over the weekend.
“He made a stop on it for a violation,” said Washington Township Police Chief Patrick Gurcsik.
But then, Chief Gurcsik said the officer learned the driver had warrants out for his arrest in another county.
“He made the officers aware that he had two DoorDash meals in the car that he was in the middle of delivering,” Gurcsik said.
The officers went from cuffing the driver to ringing a doorbell to finish his delivery.
“I never heard of anything like that in the South Jersey area. It’s sort of a first for us here in Washington Township, definitely,” Gurcsik said.
Police finish DoorDash delivery after arresting driver in New Jersey
It’s happened in other places, too, including in New Mexico last summer, when a motorcycle cop delivered someone’s Chick-fil-A order after arresting the driver.
“Hello, sir, got your DoorDash. Oh, thank you,” the officer said. “He’s a good kid, give him five stars. He just didn’t take care of a simple insurance ticket.”
And officers over in Arizona made a similar arrest during a traffic stop and were seen on body camera finishing the delivery.
“Your GrubHub, still delivered your pizza,” the officer said.
“We definitely serve the community in more ways than one,” Gurcsik said.
Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Wyoming
Explore small streams of Wyo. with WGFD XStream Angler challenge
West
Supreme Court blocks California ban on notifying students’ parents about gender transitions
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for California schools to notify parents if their children want to change their gender identity without approval from the student amid a challenge against the Golden State’s ban on so-called forced outing of transgender students.
The court granted an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group, the Thomas More Society, blocking, at least for now, a state law that prohibited automatic parental notification requirements if students change their gender expression or pronouns at school.
The Thomas More Society praised the decision as “the most significant parental rights ruling in a generation.” Two sets of Catholic parents represented by the legal group argued that the state law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, caused schools to mislead them and secretly facilitate the students’ gender transitions.
Two sets of Catholic parents argued that the state law, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, caused schools to mislead them and secretly facilitate the students’ gender transitions. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
But California contended that students have the right to privacy about their gender expression, particularly if they fear rejection from their families who may not support their decision to adopt a new gender identity. The state also said school policies and state law sought to balance student privacy with parental rights.
Last year, state education officials told school districts that the state’s policy “does not mandate nondisclosure.” Newsom’s office also previously said that “parents continue to have full, guaranteed access to their student’s education records as required by federal law.”
The Supreme Court sided with the parents on Monday and reinstated a lower-court order blocking the law and school policies while the case continues.
“The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California’s policies violate those beliefs,” the majority wrote in an unsigned order, adding that state policies also burden the free exercise of religion.
The Thomas More Society praised the decision as “the most significant parental rights ruling in a generation.” (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also said they would have gone a step further and granted the teachers’ appeal to lift restrictions for them. The three liberal justices dissented, saying the case is still working its way through lower courts and there was no need to take action now.
“If nothing else, this Court owes it to a sovereign State to avoid throwing over its policies in a slapdash way, if the Court can provide normal procedures. And throwing over a State’s policy is what the Court does today,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote.
A federal judge ruled in December 2025 that schools cannot prevent teachers from sharing information about a student’s gender identity with their parents, but an appeals court blocked that ruling last month, leading the plaintiffs to ask the nation’s highest court to step in.
TRUMP ADMIN FINDS CALIFORNIA BAN ON NOTIFYING PARENTS OF GENDER TRANSITIONS VIOLATED FEDERAL LAW
The Supreme Court sided with the parents and reinstated a lower-court order blocking the law and school policies while the case continues. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The high court has been weighing whether to hear arguments in cases out of other states such as Massachusetts and Florida filed by parents who say schools facilitated gender transitions without notifying them.
The U.S. Department of Education also announced last month that the California law violates federal law. The findings of the federal investigation could put at risk the nearly $8 billion in education funding the federal government gives the state each year if state officials do not work with the Trump administration to resolve the violations.
The Trump administration is also pursuing legal action against California and threatening to withhold funding over a policy allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
-
World1 week agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Wisconsin4 days agoSetting sail on iceboats across a frozen lake in Wisconsin
-
Maryland4 days agoAM showers Sunday in Maryland
-
Florida4 days agoFlorida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
-
Denver, CO1 week ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Massachusetts2 days agoMassachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
-
Oregon6 days ago2026 OSAA Oregon Wrestling State Championship Results And Brackets – FloWrestling