Bryan Kohberger is serving four consecutive life sentences for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students. The hearing is scheduled for June 17, 2027, according to court documents cited by ABC News. He has now been granted a new evidentiary hearing in his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea.
He claimed that his attorneys exaggerated the conditions he would face on Idaho’s death row if he went to trial and lost. The decision does not overturn Kohberger’s conviction or sentence. It allows a court to examine his post-conviction claims that his guilty plea was entered under coercion and without full disclosure of evidence. Those claims have been included in his petition but have not been tested in court. An evidentiary hearing thus gives both sides an opportunity to present evidence and witness testimony regarding those allegations. During that proceeding, Kohberger’s legal team must present evidence supporting his claims that the guilty plea was not entered knowingly and voluntarily.
Judge Steven Hippler has scheduled the evidentiary hearing for June 17, 2027.
In his handwritten court filings, Kohberger alleged that his former legal team used “coercion, disinformation, false promises, and the withholding of exculpatory discovery,” which led him to enter the “bogus” guilty plea.
Kohberger further stated that he had previously been diagnosed with Developmental Coordination Disorder and other psychiatric conditions.
