Bryan Kohberger Prosecutor Had Another Controversial Plea Deal With Death Penalty

The Bryan Kohberger plea deal in Idaho is not the first controversial bargain struck by the same District Attorney's Office ... because the top prosecutor made a similar deal nearly 29 years ago to the day ... and it also involved murders and the death penalty.

TMZ did some digging and we found out that back in July 1996, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson -- who still holds the same position today -- struck a deal to spare the life of a man who admitted to killing two people.

The parallels here are eerie ... because in that case, two Chinese nationals were stabbed to death in their Moscow, ID apartment ... and a former University of Idaho student copped to the murders.

The killer, Wenkai Li, was charged with first-degree murder, and capital punishment was on the table if he was found guilty ... but he struck a deal with Thompson where the death penalty was taken off the table, and he pled guilty to second-degree murder.

The families of the slain victims in that case were furious, and they ripped Thompson in a letter to the judge, saying they were "extremely upset and dissatisfied with the plea bargain" ... which they said betrayed the truth.

In Kohberger's case ... he was charged with first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. The students were killed inside their off-campus home in Moscow.

Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty, but they made a deal with Kohberger where he will plead guilty in exchange for prosecutors removing capital punishment from the equation ... and the families of two of the victims are up in arms.

Thompson is the common denominator here and it kinda makes ya wonder ... is this the D.A.'s modus operandi ... taking the death penalty off the table and plea-bargaining to avoid a trial?!?