Judge Steven Hippler has ruled to keep the death penalty on the table in the case of Bryan Kohberger.

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

12 separate motions filed with the court by the defense were argued 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 aggravators 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 summary, Judge Hippler writes "The Court concludes relief in Defendant's favor is not warranted on any of the motions."

One of the motions filed by the defense sought to strike the state's notice on grounds of "means of execution." The defense argues that the methods of execution used in Idaho, lethal injection or the firing squad, violate Kohberger's Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, because "Defendant asserts that Idaho currently does not 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 way too early in the process to determine how, or with what method, Idaho would choose to execute someone who could likely be on death row for at least a decade. The judge agreed.

Judge Hippler's final order, "Based on the foregoing analysis, Defendant's death Penalty Motions are hereby DENIED."