BOISE, Idaho — Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho Josh Hurwit was asked to join the prosecution team in the murder case of Bryan Kohberger earlier this year.
Hurwit sat down with Idaho News 6 to discuss what may have occurred if the trial had proceeded as planned before Kohberger reached a plea agreement with the prosecution.
Josh Hurwit said the prosecution was ready. “As a trial lawyer, I was ready to go. I signed up on the case for one reason, which was to try the case and seek justice.”
But a plea deal was struck, and Kohberger avoided a jury trial. Now the question of motive would never truly be known.
Hurwit put it this way: “This crime, like many others, does not have a rational explanation to begin with. It was an inhumane thing that this person did to four beautiful people, and [it] affected others as well. So, trying to understand that it’s kind of a futile exercise because no one that could give us some explanation that would provide any comfort would do these things in the first place. So, that's why I say, I don't think that having the trial, whether he would have testified or not, would have given folks the answers they were looking for.”
The people on the prosecution's witness list were never called to testify, but I asked Hurwit about Kohberger's sister and whether or not she was on their list.
"I think she was on the list, yes," said Hurwit. "At the same time, the list doesn’t mean that we’re going to call every single witness on the list. Every witness that we were going to call is to establish certain facts. You know, and then there are other facts that the other side might elicit from that witness, so you have to balance it out."
As far as a television movie that’s in production about the murders, Hurwit simply said, "Not interested."
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