Almost 13 months after pleading guilty to murdering University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, Bryan Kohberger filed a handwritten petition seeking to withdraw his plea and obtain post-conviction relief. Kohberger now claims he is innocent and alleges that his defense attorneys pressured him into “falsely confessing” through coercion, false promises, misleading information about the death penalty and the withholding of potentially exculpatory evidence. He specifically claimed his attorneys failed to tell him about unknown hair reportedly found in Ethan Chapin’s hands, advised him that actual guilt was not important to the plea decision and exaggerated the conditions he would face on Idaho’s death row.
Kohberger’s new claims directly conflict with what he told Judge Steven Hippler under oath in July 2025, when he said he was satisfied with his attorneys, was pleading guilty voluntarily and admitted committing the burglary and four murders. His plea agreement spared him a possible death sentence in exchange for four consecutive life sentences without parole and a waiver of most appeal rights, although he can still pursue certain claims of ineffective legal representation through post-conviction proceedings. Idaho defense attorneys said overturning the plea would require Kohberger to clear a difficult legal threshold, and reopening the case could jeopardize the agreement that saved his life and potentially restore the possibility of capital prosecution.
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