Murder suspect Bryan Kohberger hires expert witness who worked on OJ Simpson’s case
Bryan Kohberger has hired a forensic expert who worked on OJ Simpson’s defense as the Idaho murder suspect fights the death penalty.
Kohberger, 29, plans to call Dr. Barbara Wolf to testify over whether capital punishment should be on the table if he’s convicted of slaying University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, in 2022.
Wolf — who currently works as a medical examiner in Florida — was enlisted in Simpson’s case, resulting in the former NFL player getting acquitted in 1995 on charges of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
Simpson — who died in April of cancer — was later found liable for their deaths in a civil case.
Specifically, Wolf — a forensic pathologist — worked with a team of experts from Albany Medical College analyzing evidence in Simpson’s case, including at least one of the two gloves found at the crime scene and in Simpson’s yard respectively.
Simpson’s lawyer Johnny Cochran famously said at trial “If [the glove] doesn’t fit, you must acquit” after his notorious client appeared to struggle to fit a bloodied glove on his hand.
Kohberger — the former criminal justice doctoral student accused of butchering the four roommates and then fleeing — could face a firing squad if convicted.
Wolf said last month that death by firing squad causes pain and suffering, according to an affidavit filed by Kohberger’s lawyers, who argued that their client shouldn’t face the death penalty.
Wolf will testify remotely at a Nov. 7 hearing, the Daily Mail first reported.
Idaho laws call for lethal injection to be used for someone sentenced to capital punishment but if that option isn’t available for some reason, state laws say a firing squad should be used for execution.
Kohberger’s lawyers argued that he shouldn’t face either method, claiming Idaho has struggled with lethal injection for myriad reasons and saying death by firing squad is cruel.
State prosecutors — who are pushing for the death penalty in Kohberger’s case — responded that the arguments are premature, since the method of death can’t be discussed until after an appeal. They also argued that Kohberger’s lawyers’ claims that lethal injection won’t be available when he’s eventually executed years from now are “speculative.”
Kohberger’s trial is slated to begin with jury selection on July 30 and is expected to continue through Nov. 7, with the trial split up into a portion to determine if he’s guilty and a portion to determine if he should be sentenced to the death penalty.
The case was recently relocated from nearby the close-knit Moscow, Idaho, community where the murders were carried out to the state’s capital of Boise to avoid any bias that came from the media coverage locals were and continued to be exposed to.
