Bryan Kohberger, the 31-year-old former criminal justice graduate student who pleaded guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students, has filed a handwritten petition asking a court to reopen his case. In the filing, he claims he was "convinced to falsely confess" and that his lawyers withheld "exculpatory" evidence from him.
Kohberger is asking for a new trial. He followed the petition with a statement to the New York Times insisting he is not guilty despite his November 2022 admission to the killings, telling the paper: "My actual innocence is my truth."
In open court in July 2025, Kohberger admitted guilt to the pre-dawn stabbing deaths of Maddie Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, at their off-campus home. When questioned by the sentencing judge, he stated the admission was voluntary and that he had committed each of the murders.
The legal path to a new trial
Kohberger's case now rests on the Sixth Amendment, which allows a signed guilty plea to be overturned if a defense lawyer is shown to have provided inadequate counsel or failed to follow a client's instructions. He is being assisted by a new court-appointed attorney, Gregory Rauch.
If Kohberger succeeds, his plea deal for four consecutive life sentences would be vacated and he would face a new trial as a death penalty case. Under Idaho law, a conviction could result in a sentence to be carried out by firing squad.
Kohberger is currently serving four life sentences without parole plus 10 years for a burglary charge inside the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, about 18 miles south of downtown Boise, behind two razor-wire perimeter fences.
How the plea deal came together
The trial had been set to begin last summer after more than two years of legal proceedings. Prosecutors, led by longtime Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson, held key evidence including a knife sheath bearing Kohberger's DNA found at the crime scene.
The judge had also ruled that the defense's claim Kohberger was stargazing alone in a park at 4 a.m. during the murders was "not an alibi," and rejected the defense's attempt to name an alternate perpetrator as too vague to be admissible.
Only days before jury selection was to begin, defense attorney Anne Taylor of Legal Aid approached Thompson with a plea bargain. Prosecutors agreed, and Kohberger avoided the death penalty in exchange for life in prison. Thompson did not require an allocution, meaning Kohberger was never compelled to give an on-the-record account of what happened.
Questions that were never answered
Because no allocution took place, a motive for the murders was never stated in court. No evidence was introduced showing Kohberger had any connection to the victims, including stalking them or following them on social media, or that he had previously been in the house.
Prosecutors also never explained how his DNA ended up on the button snap of a knife sheath found in one victim's bed, what happened to the murder weapon, or how he left the bloodied house without leaving a discernible trail.
The victims' defense team spent more than $5.5 million of Idaho taxpayer money pursuing the case before the plea deal, including the rejected stargazing alibi and a last-minute attempt to identify other suspects.
An author's theory of a second attacker
Howard Blum, author of "When the Night Comes Falling: A Requiem for the Idaho Student Murders," who has covered the case since the bodies were discovered, argues that forensic reports raised questions the prosecution never resolved about whether Kohberger acted alone.
According to Blum, the four victims suffered more than 100 stab wounds combined, and at least two were severely beaten and fought back, raising the possibility a second weapon was used. He disputes the official 13-minute timeline given by prosecutors and law enforcement for the killings across two floors of the house, calculating it at closer to nine minutes.
Blum contends the only way the extent of the violence could have occurred in that window is if there were two assailants, and predicts Kohberger will eventually claim he was an accomplice to someone else who is still at large, rather than acting alone. He said the defense never pursued this argument because it would have required admitting their client was involved in the killings.
The victims lived at 1122 King Road; Chapin did not live there but was visiting his girlfriend, Kernodle. Two housemates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, survived by locking themselves in Funke's downstairs room during the attack.
