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Murder In Moscow: Bryan Kohberger And The June 23 2023 Hearing · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to the program. Brian Kohlberger is going
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to make an appearance in court today and there's a
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: few items on the docket that are going to be
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  Speaker 1: addressed by Judge Judge. And those four items are the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: defense's motion to compel, the defense's motion to make available
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  Speaker 1: records of all proceedings of the grand jury, defense's motion
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  Speaker 1: requesting release of grand jury materials under protective order, and finally,
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  Speaker 1: the defense's motion to stay proceedings. Now, all of this
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  Speaker 1: is scheduled to kick off at 1030 a.m. local time
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  Speaker 1: in Idaho. And obviously, we're going to be following along
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  Speaker 1: very closely to see what comes of this appearance in
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  Speaker 1: court for Brian Kohlberger. But before we get there, why
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: don't we take a look at some of the headlines
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  Speaker 1: and see where things currently stand as of this morning.
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  Speaker 1: And to do that, we're going to use an article
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  Speaker 1: from The Independent. Headline, Brian Koberger hearing Idaho murder suspect
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  Speaker 1: to appear in court as prosecutors seek the death penalty.
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  Speaker 1: This article was authored by Rachel Sharp. Idaho murder suspect
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  Speaker 1: Brian Koberger is scheduled to appear in court today, hours
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  Speaker 1: after prosecutors announced their plans to seek the death penalty
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  Speaker 1: against him. The 28-year-old criminology Ph.D. student will appear in
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  Speaker 1: Latah County Court in Moscow, Idaho on Tuesday afternoon, where
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  Speaker 1: Judge John Judge will hear arguments on several motions in
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  Speaker 1: the case. In recent court filings, Mr. Koberger's attorneys have
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  Speaker 1: asked the court to order prosecutors to turn over more
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  Speaker 1: evidence about the DNA tying him to the crime scene,
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  Speaker 1: as well as information about the grand jury, which returned
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  Speaker 1: an indictment against him. In one filing submitted last week,
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  Speaker 1: the accused killer insisted he has no connection to the
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  Speaker 1: four slain students and claimed that DNA from three other
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  Speaker 1: unidentified men was also found at the grisly crime scene.
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  Speaker 1: On its face, that sounds like a pretty big deal, right?
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  Speaker 1: Three other DNA profiles found at the scene of the crime? Well,
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  Speaker 1: how many of those DNA profiles were found on the
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  Speaker 1: knife sheath? That's what I'm really concerned about. Not other
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  Speaker 1: DNA profiles found at the house, considering all the stuff
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  Speaker 1: we've covered previously about how many people were there, how
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  Speaker 1: it was a party house, and all of that other jazz.
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  Speaker 1: So you would expect there to be other DNA profiles
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  Speaker 1: from other dudes, right? Now let's talk about that knife sheath.
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  Speaker 1: How many other DNA profiles are on that knife sheath?
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  Speaker 1: And if it's only Brian Kohlberger's DNA profile on that
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  Speaker 1: knife sheath, well, they're going to have to explain that.
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  Speaker 1: and they can file all the documents with the court
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  Speaker 1: that they want, but they're going to have to explain
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  Speaker 1: it to a jury. And for me, that's what I
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  Speaker 1: remain laser-focused on. What's a jury going to think? What's
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  Speaker 1: a jury going to say when they get all of
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  Speaker 1: this evidence? Meanwhile, on Monday, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson
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  Speaker 1: filed a notice of his intent to seek the death penalty,
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  Speaker 1: citing five aggravating circumstances that could warrant the maximum sentence
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  Speaker 1: of capital punishment.
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  Speaker 2: Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Kohlberger is accused of the brutal murders of Kaylee Gonsalves,
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  Speaker 1: Madison Mogan, Ethan Chapin, and Zanna Kernodle, who were stabbed
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  Speaker 1: to death in a student home on November 13th.
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  Speaker 2: Court today.
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  Speaker 1: Brian Kohlberger seeks a stay of the proceedings. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: remember when you were a kid and you would ask
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  Speaker 1: your parents for some kind of bizarre Christmas present? Hey, Mom, Dad,
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  Speaker 1: I know I live in the South Bronx, but can
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  Speaker 1: I have a pony? That's kind of the same thing
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  Speaker 1: that's going on here with this request, right? You can
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  Speaker 1: make the request all you want, but there's zero chance
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  Speaker 1: that the judge is going to stay the proceedings here.
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  Speaker 1: There's way too much evidence for that to occur. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the judge might admonish the prosecution for slow walking some
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  Speaker 1: documents or something, but I don't see there being any
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  Speaker 1: kind of earth shattering ruling at this hearing today where
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  Speaker 1: the prosecution's forced to turn over evidence. I think they've
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  Speaker 1: turned over quite a bit of evidence, honestly. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: there's so much evidence that Koberger's legal team has said
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  Speaker 1: that they don't have the time to go through it
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  Speaker 1: all yet. And whenever you have a complex case such
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  Speaker 1: as this, that's usually how the cookie crumbles. And as
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  Speaker 1: I've said several times now, I believe that this whole
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  Speaker 1: entire trial is going to get pushed back eventually. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: not today, maybe not tomorrow, but I think that Koberger's
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  Speaker 1: team is eventually going to try and get this postponed.
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  Speaker 1: because there's way too much evidence to go through. In
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  Speaker 1: court on Tuesday, Judge John Judge will hear arguments on
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  Speaker 1: the defense's request for a stay of proceedings. Brian Kohlberger's
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: defense filed the motion for a stay earlier this month,
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  Speaker 1: arguing that the case should be put on hold until
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  Speaker 1: the matter of the grand jury record is resolved in court.
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  Speaker 2: Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Kohlberger is seeking the complete record of the grand jury
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  Speaker 1: proceedings from prosecutors arguing it is crucial to him fighting
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  Speaker 1: the indictment against him. A stay of proceedings is where
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  Speaker 1: a court stops or suspends case proceedings or a trial
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  Speaker 1: either temporarily or indefinitely. Now, again, I don't think that
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  Speaker 1: they're going to be successful getting this trial stayed. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that Brian Kohlberger is taking a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a Hail Mary shot here with this request. But His
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  Speaker 1: legal team has to do it, right? And they're going
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  Speaker 1: to use every single lever available to them to try
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  Speaker 1: and get Brian Kohlberger off. And that's what they should
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  Speaker 1: be doing. And if there's any kind of inconsistencies with
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  Speaker 1: the evidence that's provided by the prosecution, I would think
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  Speaker 1: that Brian Kohlberger's team would be able to recognize that
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  Speaker 1: and utilize that as a pathway to try and make
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  Speaker 1: up some ground here. But I just don't see that
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  Speaker 1: being the case as far as staying the proceedings. I
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  Speaker 1: don't think there's enough meat on that bone. Judge keeps
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  Speaker 1: gag order in place in Idaho murder's case. Last week,
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  Speaker 1: the judge ruled to keep the gag order in place
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  Speaker 1: in the case, but narrowed its scope, agreeing with the
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  Speaker 1: media coalition and attorneys for Gonsalves' family that the original
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  Speaker 1: order was too broad. The ruling was handed down late
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  Speaker 1: Friday afternoon. In it, 2nd District Judge John Judge said
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  Speaker 1: it was legally prudent to restrict attorneys from making some
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  Speaker 1: statements about the case in order to preserve Brian.
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  Speaker 2: Kohlberger's right to a fair trial.
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  Speaker 1: The judge said the gag order served a legitimate purpose
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  Speaker 1: and the very limited incidental effects of the speech restrictions
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  Speaker 1: on the media's First Amendment rights are overridden by the
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  Speaker 1: compelling interest in ensuring a fair trial by an impartial jury. Still,
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  Speaker 1: Judge also said the original gag order which also barred
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement officers and other people related to the case
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  Speaker 1: from speaking to the press, that it was arguably overbroad
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  Speaker 1: and vague in some areas. That's an understatement. It most
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  Speaker 1: certainly was overbroad and vague in several different areas. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if you want to talk about the attorneys, agents of
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  Speaker 1: the court, not being able to discuss what's going on
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  Speaker 1: inside of that courtroom, I say that's a good thing.
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  Speaker 1: But if we're talking about the police officers, or people
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  Speaker 1: involved in what's going on in the city of Moscow,
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  Speaker 1: for example, then they shouldn't be protected under this gag order.
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  Speaker 2: This should be specifically to.
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  Speaker 1: Keep Brian Kohlberger from having a tainted jury pool and
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  Speaker 1: to ensure that he gets a fair trial. And for
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  Speaker 1: that to occur, I don't think that the mayor of
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  Speaker 1: a place like Moscow or the police chief or anybody
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  Speaker 1: else should be able to use this gag order to
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  Speaker 1: not answer questions about this case. As long as those
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  Speaker 1: questions don't have anything to do with what's going on
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  Speaker 1: behind the scenes.
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  Speaker 2: So when this case was first breaking.
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  Speaker 1: You had people like the mayor of Moscow, for example,
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  Speaker 1: refusing to answer basic questions about things like the cost
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  Speaker 1: of the case and other things that people were interested about,
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  Speaker 1: things that weren't materially important as far as Brian Kohlberger's
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  Speaker 1: trial goes, and they still wouldn't answer those questions. And
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  Speaker 1: of course, they use the gag order as their umbrella. Well,
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  Speaker 1: now they're not going to be able to do that.
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  Speaker 1: So there's going to be more of a back and
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  Speaker 1: forth at least with law enforcement, when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: the media and asking questions about what went on here.
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  Speaker 1: And now that the prosecutors have announced that they're going
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  Speaker 1: to go after the death penalty, what have the families
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  Speaker 1: said about the death penalty? Well, the parents of one
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  Speaker 1: of the four murdered University of Idaho students have previously
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  Speaker 1: spoken out to say that they would support the death
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  Speaker 1: penalty for her killer. And Steve and Christy Gonsalves have
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  Speaker 1: been very adamant from the very beginning that this is
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  Speaker 1: the path that they hope that the state follows. And
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  Speaker 1: it looks like they're getting their wish. Now remember, with
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  Speaker 1: the state going after a death penalty charge here, the
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  Speaker 1: burden of proof is much higher for the state. So
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  Speaker 1: that also leads me to believe that the state has
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  Speaker 1: more than we know about. I doubt the prosecutor would
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  Speaker 1: take the step of going after this as a capital
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  Speaker 1: punishment case. If you didn't have all of the goods.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that behind the scenes, they have a
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  Speaker 1: ton of evidence that we just don't know about yet.
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  Speaker 1: And when all of that evidence is weaved into everything
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  Speaker 1: that we have seen, it's going to provide a very
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  Speaker 1: damning picture. for Brian Kohlberger. Kaylee Gonsalves' parents, Steve and
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  Speaker 1: Christy Gonsalves, told News Nation in January that they were
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  Speaker 1: glad they live in a state where capital punishment is legal.
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  Speaker 1: We're glad we live in Idaho, said Ms. Gonsalves.
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  Speaker 2: Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Gonsalves said, if our daughter could switch places with him,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm saying Maddie, as my daughter, we'd do it
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  Speaker 1: in a heartbeat. If they could sit there and have
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  Speaker 1: three squares, a reference to prison meals, a place to live,
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  Speaker 1: we could call them, we could write them letters, they
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  Speaker 1: could watch TV, they could get educated. Ms. Gonsalves added,
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  Speaker 1: I would love if Maddie and Kaylee were doing life
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  Speaker 1: in prison right now. At least we could talk to them.
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  Speaker 1: The Gonsalves family... They're looking for that eye-for-an-eye type of justice.
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  Speaker 1: If our daughter can't be here for us to talk to,
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  Speaker 1: then if Brian Kohlberger is found guilty of these murders,
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  Speaker 1: he shouldn't be around to talk to his family either.
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  Speaker 1: And while it sounds harsh, when you're somebody who lost
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: family members or a family member in a violent manner
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  Speaker 1: the way that they did, I would think that forgiving
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  Speaker 1: somebody is the last thing on your mind. And that
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  Speaker 1: justice is all that you care about. And in the
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  Speaker 1: opinion of the Gonsalves family, Justice is Brian Kohlberger, if guilty,
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  Speaker 1: being executed. So that's where we stand as of this
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  Speaker 1: morning as Brian Kohlberger prepares to hit court. Now, after
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  Speaker 1: he's done with his court appearance, obviously, we'll have another
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  Speaker 1: update and we'll see where things stand after he makes
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  Speaker 1: that appearance. All right, folks, that's going to do it
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  Speaker 1: for this one. All of the information that goes with
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  Speaker 1: the episode can be found in the description box.