Xana Kernodle could no longer speak for herself. But her mother could, and she chose to do so in front of the man who took her away forever.
At the sentencing hearing for Bryan Kohberger, the 30-year-old former doctoral candidate who admitted to murdering four students at the University of Idaho, Xana’s mother took the stand. She did not ask for revenge. She said that her daughter was “beautiful inside and out”, and that her light would live on in every heart that knew her. And then she looked at the confessed killer and offered him something no one expected: forgiveness.
She said that it was Xana who, unknowingly, brought her closer to Jesus Christ, and that it is this same faith that now allows her to forgive someone who never showed remorse. She begged Kohberger to accept Christ before it was too late. In a courtroom set up to judge a crime, a mother decided that hatred would not have the last word.