Over the past few decades Americans have been inundated with the news of violent crimes. It has gotten to a point that when a new horrific crime is announced in the news cycle, it is greeted with a shrug or yawn.
Such, however, was not the case when four University of Idaho students were brutally murdered in the early hour of November 13, 2022.
The four students, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were viciously stabbed to death while they slept in an off-campus housing. However, one of the students, Xana Kernodle, appeared to have fought back as many of her wounds were defensive.
Goncalves was stabbed so many times in the face that she was describe as “unrecognizable” at her death.
DNA collected from a knife sheath left at the scene lead police to Bryan Kohberger, a Ph.D student in criminology, who was arrested that December at his mother’s house in Pennsylvania.
This was a crime that truly shocked the nation: four happy, good looking young people’s lives were terminated by a mad man, whose motives till this day remain unclear.
What is clear is that Kohberger meticulously planned the crime, as his phone records show that he had been in the vicinity of the students’ residence twelve times dating back to August of 2022.
The crime was despicable, but the punishment was perhaps the greater crime.
Kohberger initially pleaded not guilty, but then, in another shock to the nation, pleaded guilty on July 2 to all charges. Clearly, the reason was to prevent going to trial and facing the death penalty.
One can talk all day about the psychological profile of the killer; his childhood, his emotional hurts growing up—and what he may have been thinking the morning of the murders. Any information that one might yield from these things will not bring back those young people: they are dead, their families are crushed with grief—and their friends’ lives have been emotionally destroyed.
The guilty plea immediately took the threat of a death penalty away. It’s as if Kohberger jumped up and yelled, “Yup, I did it. Please don’t kill me!”
But that would be out of character for him as his icy stare and emotionless face betray the evil within.
Advocates who oppose the death penalty claim that it is “cruel and unusual punishment” to execute anyone; that if the accused is killed, then the state is guilty of murder also. They also claim that the death penalty is not a deterrent.
But this is pretzel logic.
If you were to ask your average American what is the purpose of human government, you might get answers like, “To provide for the common good,” or “To make sure everybody has what they need.”
These answers miss the mark.
The purpose of government is simply this: to restrain evil.
Perhaps you have never heard it put that way and think that this definition is too simplistic.
If so, then enter an anarchistic world where there is no authority and everybody can do as they please. You have heard people say, “I did something wrong, but that is just the way I am!”
What if a person’s “just the way I am” is committing mass murder, or rape—or child trafficking?
Hopefully, the point is laser sharp here.
Even the Bible makes these points more focused as we are told in Genesis that “whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood will be shed.” Later in Romans 13 we read that the authorities—the State—does not “wield the sword in vain,” a clear reference to capital punishment.
Capital punishment is not meant to be a deterrent; it is meant to take the criminal who committed the crime and eliminate him or her from society—forever. Period.
If ever there was a person who deserved to be executed, it would be Bryan Kohberger. His actions clearly indicated murder with “special circumstances.”
While even some of the victims’ family members may forgive him or want to move on, justice still needs to be served.
Those young people are dead—and Kohberger lives. He may have a miserable time in prison, but he remains alive. He can eat, read a book, go to the prison gym and work out and, who knows, maybe even make even friends.
And to incarcerate Kohberger for life, based on the latest statistics, could cost taxpayers over $2 million.
In this case justice was not blind—it simply walked away.
