BOISE, Idaho — The lead attorney for Bryan Kohberger, the man charged with murdering four University of Idaho students, urged state lawmakers to oppose a bill that proposed expanding the defendants who would qualify for the death penalty.
Anne Taylor, chief of the Kootenai County Public Defender’s Office, appeared before an Idaho Senate committee last week to argue that the state was not in a position to shoulder an increase in its number of capital punishment-eligible criminal cases. Taylor, who has led her office since 2017, was assigned to the Kohberger case after his arrest in December 2022.
The proposed law Taylor testified against sought to make certain sex crimes against children under the age of 12 punishable by death — a possible sentence ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The bill sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, already passed in the House before it came up for a Senate committee hearing Friday.
Anne Taylor is the lead public defender for Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022. She is the only public defender in North Idaho qualified to lead the defense in a death penalty case.
“These are not cases that are quick to be resolved,” Taylor told the Senate panel. “If it remains a death penalty case, it can take years to get to trial and get to a sentencing phase in that case. … Idaho is not staffed or prepared for this.”
Taylor is one of 13 public defenders statewide who are qualified to lead a death penalty defense. She is the only one of those attorneys in all of North Idaho, and her Kohberger case co-counsel, Jay Logsdon, who is her office’s chief deputy, is the only death penalty-qualified co-counsel for the same region.
Kohberger, 29, is accused of stabbing the four U of I students to death at an off-campus Moscow home in November 2022. The victims were seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson announced last year that he plans to seek the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted by a jury. Prosecutors have 60 days from the point a plea is entered to issue their notice of intent on whether they will pursue capital punishment.
Up until then, the state requires that a defendant who cannot afford an attorney be provided with a death penalty-qualified public defender within 14 days of being charged with a capital punishment-eligible crime, Taylor said. In Idaho, the only charge that can result in a death sentence is first-degree murder.
“When somebody’s charged with a crime where the death penalty could be imposed — whether it will be asked for or not by the prosecutor — the accused is entitled to representation from a capital-qualified team,” Taylor said. “That happens long before a prosecutor makes a determination of whether death will actually be sought or not, but that team has to be in place that early.”
If the jury convicts Kohberger, jurors must unanimously find at least one aggravating factor to sentence him to death, which could include that more than one murder occurred in the incident and/or the murders were committed in the midst of another crime. Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
Kohberger is next scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on the change of venue request on May 14.
