If he had been convicted at trial, Kohberger could have faced execution by firing squad. That capital punishment method is newly legal in Idaho because of the ongoing nationwide shortage of the lethal injection drugs, as major pharmaceutical suppliers have withdrawn from the capital punishment market.

Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty more than two years after the slayings shocked the nation and touched off a coast-to-coast manhunt.

Bryan Kohberger repeatedly answered "yes" when asked if he stabbed four University of Idaho students "deliberately with premeditation and malice of forethought" by the judge overseeing his case.