BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) — Judge Steven Hippler has ruled that the death penalty should be kept on the table in Bryan Kohberger’s case.

Kohberger is accused of killing four students at the University of Idaho in November 2022. Prosecutors announced they intend to seek the death penalty in 2023, and Kohberger’s defense team has been fighting to have it removed ever since.

12 separate motions filed with the court by the defense were brought before Judge Hippler on November 7, 2024. The motions, and subsequent arguments, seek to remove the death penalty based on several different factors, ranging from the aggravating factors in this case that make Kohberger eligible for the death penalty in Idaho to the very grounds used to justify the use of the death penalty itself.

In a 55-page written response, Judge Hippler addresses each motion and argument individually. In conclusion, Judge Hippler writes, “The court concludes that relief in favor of the defendant is not warranted on either motion.”

One of the motions filed by the defense sought to strike the state’s notice on “means of execution” grounds. The defense argues that the methods of execution used in Idaho, lethal injection or firing squad, violate Kohberger’s Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments because “Defendant argues that Idaho does not currently have the ability to kill a person by lethal injection and the firing squad is not only currently unavailable , it is cruel and unusual.”

The state successfully argued that this particular motion is not “ripe,” in other words, that this is far too early in the process to determine how, or by what method, Idaho would choose to execute someone who would likely be on death row for the 6 p.m. at least a decade. The judge agreed.

Judge Hippler’s final order, “Based on the foregoing analysis, the defendant’s sentence of death is hereby denied.”