Will Bryan Kohberger get death penalty? Richard Leavitt was last person executed in Idaho in 2012
This article is based on sources and MEAWW cannot verify this information independently.
MOSCOW, IDAHO: As Idaho murders' suspect Bryan Kohberger has been arrested, speculations regarding his conviction and sentencing have also begun. In fact, the death penalty does not seem out of the question at this point. The 28-year-old was arrested on December 30 from his home in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, over a month after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed in their sleep.
He was reportedly taken into custody on a warrant for the first-degree murders of the four youngsters. Reports also stated that DNA analysis played a role in Kohberger’s arrest. However, since he had no criminal history, retired Special Agent John MacVeigh reportedly said that the investigators “would have probably set up a surveillance on him," WPBF reported.
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MacVeigh added, “Possibly the bureau would have done that for them, set up surveillance, and you wait until, you know, he spits on the ground, he drops a tissue, he's at a deli, and he takes a glass, something like that.”
After Kohberger’s arrest, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told CNN, “This is not the end of this investigation, in fact, this is a new beginning. You all now know the name of the person who has been charged with these offenses, please get that information out there, please ask the public, anyone who knows about this individual, to come forward.”
Thmpson added, “Report anything you know about him, to help the investigators, and eventually our office and the court system, understand fully everything there is to know about not only the individual, but what happened and why.”
Death sentence for Bryan Kohberger?
The process to extradite Kohberger from Pennsylvania was reportedly taking place. Once he comes to Idaho, he will be charged accordingly before further trial and proceedings happen. However, chances of him getting a death sentence if found guilty of the grisly quadruple murder do not seem to be zero as Idaho is among 27 American states where capital punishment is legal.
As per a KTVB7 report published in April, eight prisoners, including a woman named Robin Row, are on death row. “We have eight death sentence murders. And less than half of those are what you would call new cases. The others are old, from the 80s 90s, early 2000s,” L Lamont Anderson, the chief of the Capitol Litigation Unit in the Idaho Attorney general’s office, said at the time.
The last execution happened in Idaho in 2012 when Richard Albert Leavitt was reportedly put to death using a lethal injection on June 12 after being convicted of stabbing and mutilating Danette Elg, 31, of Blackfoot in 1984.
Clarkprosecutor.org reported that Leavitt carried out the murder in July of that year. It stated, “The victim was brutally attacked in her bed. She suffered up to fifteen separate slash and stab wounds, including the slashing removal of her sexual organs. The body of the victim was not discovered until three or four days following the killing."
It continued, “The victim had reported a prowling incident two nights earlier in which she advised the police that the prowler, thought to be the defendant, had tried to enter her home. During the interim between the murder and its discovery, the defendant had contacted friends of the victim and also the police, expressing curiosity as to the victim's whereabouts.”
After Leavitt’s death, Elg’s sister Valynn Mathie and other family members issued a statement that read, “We want to express thanks to everyone who has labored faithfully to uphold the laws of Idaho so that justice and retribution may be served. Closure is now possible for those of us who have lived with the horror of Danette's murder constantly overshadowing the joyful memories of her life. As family and friends of Danette we never have to think of Richard Leavitt again. Our memories can now focus on the brief time she was here sharing our lives and the joy of loving her.”