Latest news with #VictimImpact
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
Watch Live: Bryan Kohberger to be sentenced as Idaho murder victims' families share impact statements today
Bryan Kohberger is set to be formally sentenced at a hearing after pleading guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Kohberger's sentencing hearing is set to begin at 9 a.m. Mountain Time Wednesday, which is 11 a.m. Eastern. It is expected to last the day, with some scheduled breaks, although the judge said it could be extended into Thursday to ensure there is enough time for the families to read victim impact statements. The hearing will be open to the public and livestreamed, the court said. More than 50 people were lined up before dawn outside the Ada County Courthouse waiting to get in, with some having waited there all night. Kohberger pleaded guilty earlier this month to the murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves as part of a plea deal that spared him from the death penalty. The plea agreement states he will be receive four life sentences without the possibility of parole, one for each murder charge, and a 10-year sentence for a burglary charge that he also pleaded guilty to. During his plea hearing, Judge Steven Hippler said the court is not bound by the plea agreement and could impose a different sentence. Chapin, Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves were killed at a home in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania six weeks later. Prosecutors said that if the case had gone to trial they would have used DNA evidence that linked Kohberger to the crime scene, his online purchase history, surveillance video of Koherger's car, and cellphone data that showed him in the vicinity of the killings. The families of the victims have been divided over the plea deal. Mogen's father told CBS News he was relieved to learn of the deal, saying it will allow his family to "actually put this behind us." The Goncalves family has bitterly criticized the agreement, and told CBS News after a gag order was lifted that they believe the plea deal gives Kohberger a chance to live a "better and more rewarding life inside" prison. Note: Streaming plans subject to change.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
Bryan Kohberger sentencing: What to expect as Idaho murderer learns his fate
will be sentenced today for the murders of four University of Idaho students in a case that sent shockwaves across the nation. The 30-year-old killer - who spent years studying criminology - will appear in Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, where he will be forced to face the families and friends of his victims, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Whether those families will get any answers about why he did it or how he came to target the home on King Road in Moscow remains to be seen. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the quadruple murder earlier this month in a deal to avoid the death penalty. He will have an opportunity to speak at the sentencing - as will the loved ones of his victims. Here's what to expect at the killer's sentencing today. THE LOGISTICS The sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin at 9am MT on July 23 in Ada County Courthouse and is expected to last the full day. Judge Steven Hippler has also set aside Thursday should it run into a second day. Public seating in the courtroom is first-come, first-served. The hearing will also be livestreamed. Unlike other court hearings where Kohberger has been allowed to wear his own clothes, he will be forced to appear in court in prison garb. VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENTS During the sentencing, the families and friends of the victims will be given the opportunity to confront the man who slaughtered their loved ones when they deliver victim impact statements to the court. Many have already revealed their plans to do so, including members of the Goncalves family and Kernodle's mom Cara Northington. Chapin's parents have said the family will not attend the hearing, instead planning to do something together in their son's memory. As well as the families, the two surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke and other friends of the victims will also have the chance to speak publicly for the first time. Those who do want to address the court can speak in-person themselves or have a representative read out a statement on their behalf. WILL BRYAN KOHBERGER SPEAK? Before the judge hands down his sentence, Kohberger will also be given the opportunity to speak to the court - giving him one final opportunity to reveal why he decided to commit his heinous crime. After pleading guilty, a defendant is given a formal opportunity - called an allocution - to address the court to express remorse, accept responsibility and explain any mitigating circumstances they want the judge to consider in deciding their sentence. It is unclear if Kohberger plans to take that opportunity. There is no legal obligation for him to speak to the court or to explain his motive. Some of the victims' families have voiced their frustration that this was not a requirement of his plea deal. President Donald Trump has also weighed in on the matter, taking to Truth Social Monday to urge the judge to force Kohberger to 'explain why he did these horrible murders' in Wednesday's hearing. Since his arrest, Kohberger has cut a largely silent figure. At his change of plea hearing earlier this month, he gave only one-word answers to the judge's questions confirming he was guilty of the horrific crime. He offered no answers to the questions lingering in the case, including his motive for the murders, who his intended target was and how he chose his victims. Kohberger's sentence is already agreed upon, so he perhaps has less of an incentive to speak now. THE SENTENCE Judge Hippler is expected to sentence Kohberger to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in line with the controversial plea deal struck between the defense and prosecution in the case. In an unexpected change of plea hearing on July 2, Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. Under the terms of the plea deal, Kohberger will avoid the death penalty and will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for each of the murders, plus the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count. Kohberger also agreed to waive his right to appeal the plea and sentence as part of the agreement. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Following the sentencing, Kohberger will be transferred to the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction, which will determine which prison will become home for the rest of his life. Due to the severity of his crime - and the high-profile nature of the case - Kohberger is expected to be sent to the state's only maximum security facility. Idaho Maximum Security Institution, which has been open since 1989, is home to other notorious inmates including doomsday cult killer Chad Daybell, who sits on death row. While Kohberger begins his lifetime behind bars, more information is expected to come to light about the murders. The gag order was lifted last week, finally allowing attorneys, law enforcement and other officials to speak about the case. At the time, both the prosecution and the defense said they would not make any statements until after the sentencing. Judge Hippler said the court will also begin the painstaking process to review all the records in the case to determine what can be unsealed and made public.
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
Bryan Kohberger to be sentenced as Idaho murder victims' families share impact statements today
Bryan Kohberger is set to be formally sentenced at a hearing after pleading guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Kohberger's sentencing hearing is set to begin at 9 a.m. Mountain Time Wednesday, which is 11 a.m. Eastern. It is expected to last the day, with some scheduled breaks, although the judge said it could be extended into Thursday to ensure there is enough time for the families to read victim impact statements. The hearing will be open to the public and livestreamed, the court said. More than 50 people were lined up before dawn outside the Ada County Courthouse waiting to get in, with some having waited there all night. Kohberger pleaded guilty earlier this month to the murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves as part of a plea deal that spared him from the death penalty. The plea agreement states he will be receive four life sentences without the possibility of parole, one for each murder charge, and a 10-year sentence for a burglary charge that he also pleaded guilty to. During his plea hearing, Judge Steven Hippler said the court is not bound by the plea agreement and could impose a different sentence. Chapin, Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves were killed at a home in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania six weeks later. Prosecutors said that if the case had gone to trial they would have used DNA evidence that linked Kohberger to the crime scene, his online purchase history, surveillance video of Koherger's car, and cellphone data that showed him in the vicinity of the killings. The families of the victims have been divided over the plea deal. Mogen's father told CBS News he was relieved to learn of the deal, saying it will allow his family to "actually put this behind us." The Goncalves family has bitterly criticized the agreement, and told CBS News after a gag order was lifted that they believe the plea deal gives Kohberger a chance to live a "better and more rewarding life inside" prison. Note: Streaming plans subject to change.
Fox News
6 days ago
- Fox News
Idaho victims' families to address killer directly at Kohberger sentencing
BOISE, Idaho – It's judgment day for Bryan Kohberger, the former aspiring criminologist who killed four University of Idaho students in a 4 a.m. home invasion ambush in November 2022. The 30-year-old was studying for a Ph.D. at Washington State University in Pullman when he drove about 10 miles to the off-campus rental house at 1122 King Road, just across the state line, in Moscow, Idaho. At a change of plea hearing July 2, he admitted to killing four young people inside: Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. But he did not give a motive or explain anything other than admit his guilt. Their families are expected to address him directly in court today with victim impact statements in a sentencing hearing expected to take all day. Mogen and Goncalves, who were best friends, were killed in a third-floor bedroom. Kohberger's key mistake — the only publicly known physical evidence tying him to the crimes — was a Ka-Bar knife sheath he left under Mogen's body. Police found his DNA on the snap. On the second floor, Kernodle was awake, having received a DoorDash delivery minutes earlier. Kohberger killed her, then turned his knife on her sleeping boyfriend, Chapin, who was spending the night. A surviving roommate told police she heard crying and a man's voice say something to the effect of, "It's OK. I'm going to help." Then she saw a masked man with "bushy eyebrows" leave out the back door. For whatever reason, he didn't attack her. The victims' families have been split over the plea deal, which required Kohberger to waive his right to appeal and to forfeit his right to seek a sentence reduction under Idaho law. Some of the families, but not all, are expected to deliver victim impact statements in a proceeding court officials predicted would run for the full day. It remains unclear what, if anything, Kohberger will say. While the plea deal specifically didn't require Kohberger to explain his actions at the July 2 hearing, Goncalves' father and many others, including President Trump, have said they hope he is required to give greater detail at sentencing. Chapin's parents and the mothers of Kernodle and Mogen have all voiced support for the plea deal, which will spare them from years of appeals and the trauma of a trial. In exchange for his guilty plea, Kohberger avoids the death penalty and is expected to receive the maximum punishment of four consecutive life prison sentences with no possibility of parole, plus another 10 years. His sentencing begins Wednesday at 9 a.m. Mountain Time, 11 a.m. Eastern.
Fast Company
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Why AI ‘reanimations' of the dead may not be ethical
Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident in 2021. On May 8, 2025, at the sentencing hearing for his killer, an AI video reconstruction of Pelkey delivered a victim impact statement. The trial judge reported being deeply moved by this performance and issued the maximum sentence for manslaughter. As part of the ceremonies to mark Israel's 77th year of independence on April 30, 2025, officials had planned to host a concert featuring four iconic Israeli singers. All four had died years earlier. The plan was to conjure them using AI-generated sound and video. The dead performers were supposed to sing alongside Yardena Arazi, a famous and still very much alive artist. In the end Arazi pulled out, citing the political atmosphere, and the event didn't happen. In April, the BBC created a deepfake version of the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie to teach a 'maestro course on writing.' Fake Agatha would instruct aspiring murder mystery authors and 'inspire' their 'writing journey.' The use of artificial intelligence to 'reanimate' the dead for a variety of purposes is quickly gaining traction. Over the past few years, we've been studying the moral implications of AI at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and we find these AI reanimations to be morally problematic. Before we address the moral challenges the technology raises, it's important to distinguish AI reanimations, or deepfakes, from so-called griefbots. Griefbots are chatbots trained on large swaths of data the dead leave behind—social media posts, texts, emails, videos. These chatbots mimic how the departed used to communicate and are meant to make life easier for surviving relations. The deepfakes we are discussing here have other aims; they are meant to promote legal, political, and educational causes. Moral quandaries The first moral quandary the technology raises has to do with consent: Would the deceased have agreed to do what their likeness is doing? Would the dead Israeli singers have wanted to sing at an Independence ceremony organized by the nation's current government? Would Pelkey, the road-rage victim, be comfortable with the script his family wrote for his avatar to recite? What would Christie think about her AI double teaching that class? The answers to these questions can only be deduced circumstantially, from examining the kinds of things the dead did and the views they expressed when alive. And one could ask if the answers even matter. If those in charge of the estates agree to the reanimations, isn't the question settled? After all, such trustees are the legal representatives of the departed. But putting aside the question of consent, a more fundamental question remains. What do these reanimations do to the legacy and reputation of the dead? Doesn't their reputation depend, to some extent, on the scarcity of appearance, on the fact that the dead can't show up anymore? Dying can have a salutary effect on the reputation of prominent people; it was good for John F. Kennedy, and it was good for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The fifth-century BC Athenian leader Pericles understood this well. In his famous Funeral Oration, delivered at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War, he asserts that a noble death can elevate one's reputation and wash away their petty misdeeds. That is because the dead are beyond reach and their mystique grows postmortem. 'Even extreme virtue will scarcely win you a reputation equal to' that of the dead, he insists. Do AI reanimations devalue the currency of the dead by forcing them to keep popping up? Do they cheapen and destabilize their reputation by having them comment on events that happened long after their demise? In addition, these AI representations can be a powerful tool to influence audiences for political or legal purposes. Bringing back a popular dead singer to legitimize a political event and reanimating a dead victim to offer testimony are acts intended to sway an audience's judgment. It's one thing to channel a Churchill or a Roosevelt during a political speech by quoting them or even trying to sound like them. It's another thing to have 'them' speak alongside you. The potential of harnessing nostalgia is supercharged by this technology. Imagine, for example, what the Soviets, who literally worshipped Lenin's dead body, would have done with a deepfake of their old icon. Good intentions You could argue that because these reanimations are uniquely engaging, they can be used for virtuous purposes. Consider a reanimated Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to our currently polarized and divided nation, urging moderation and unity. Wouldn't that be grand? Or what about a reanimated Mordechai Anielewicz, the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, speaking at the trial of a Holocaust denier like David Irving? But do we know what MLK would have thought about our current political divisions? Do we know what Anielewicz would have thought about restrictions on pernicious speech? Does bravely campaigning for civil rights mean we should call upon the digital ghost of King to comment on the impact of populism? Does fearlessly fighting the Nazis mean we should dredge up the AI shadow of an old hero to comment on free speech in the digital age? Even if the political projects these AI avatars served were consistent with the deceased's views, the problem of manipulation—of using the psychological power of deepfakes to appeal to emotions—remains. But what about enlisting AI Agatha Christie to teach a writing class? Deepfakes may indeed have salutary uses in educational settings. The likeness of Christie could make students more enthusiastic about writing. Fake Aristotle could improve the chances that students engage with his austere Nicomachean Ethics. AI Einstein could help those who want to study physics get their heads around general relativity. But producing these fakes comes with a great deal of responsibility. After all, given how engaging they can be, it's possible that the interactions with these representations will be all that students pay attention to, rather than serving as a gateway to exploring the subject further. Living on in the living In a poem written in memory of W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden tells us that after the poet's death Yeats 'became his admirers.' His memory was 'scattered among a hundred cities,' and his work subject to endless interpretation: 'The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living.' The dead live on in the many ways we reinterpret their words and works. Auden did that to Yeats, and we're doing it to Auden right here. That's how people stay in touch with those who are gone. In the end, we believe that using technological prowess to concretely bring them back disrespects them and, perhaps more importantly, is an act of disrespect to ourselves—to our capacity to abstract, think, and imagine.
