(NewsNation) — Lawyers for the man accused of killing four Idaho college students claimed in a Boise courtroom Thursday that the state lacks the means to carry out humane executions, arguing he could face death by firing squad.
The death penalty hearing on whether Bryan Kohberger can be executed if he is convicted came as the second anniversary neared of the killings of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in 2022.
Idaho currently allows death by lethal injection for condemned inmates as well as a firing squad, a move Republican Gov. Brad Little signed into law last year as an alternative method, according to NBC News.
Kohberger’s trial is set to begin on Aug. 11 after being postponed in October.
Authorities have said that cellphone data or surveillance video shows that Kohberger visited the victims’ neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings, that he traveled in the region that night, returning to Pullman along a roundabout route and that his DNA was found at the crime scene.
His lawyers said in a court filing he was merely out for a drive that night, “as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars.”
Police arrested Kohberger six weeks after the killings at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he was spending winter break.
