Can Bryan Kohberger change his guilty plea and what does it mean for death penalty
The complex case of Idaho serial killer Bryan Kohberger is far from over it seems.
In July 2025, the 31-year-old plead guilty to the fatal stabbings of students Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen after local police tied him to these inhumane crimes via DNA matching.
Currently serving four consecutive life sentences without parole (plus 10 years for burglary) at Idaho's Maximum Security Penitentiary, Kohberger shocked the system by requesting to retract his plea a couple of days ago.
Under his initial plea agreement terms, the murderer was afforded the avoidance of capital punishment - otherwise known as the death penalty, which is still active in the aforementioned US state, as well as Texas, California and Florida.
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Kohberger's attorneys allegedly told him that life behind bars would give him 'immediate contact visits, freedom of movement' and 'employment', all of which turned into 'unkept promises'.
Ultimately, he believes that they constructed 'elaborate lies' about Death Row to put him off a not-guilty declaration and subsequent jury trial, but will this change of heart truly land with the judges and allow Kohberger an official reversal?
Per CNN, University of Idaho College of Law's associate professor of law Samuel Newton weighed in on the likeliness.
"Idaho Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 uses a lenient 'fair and just reason' standard before sentencing, but once [the] sentence is imposed, withdrawal is permitted only to correct a 'manifest injustice,'" he shared.
To prove a manifest injustice, Kohberger must show that he didn't voluntarily enter his plea.
Meanwhile, to convince the court of his 'false promises' theory, the prisoner needs to display either that his plea was 'rendered involuntary or unknowing by a material misrepresentation from his lawyers or the state', or 'for some reason or another he received ineffective assistance of counsel'.
Kohberger needs 'concrete, credible evidence' in this case, while he'd also be forced to explain why he made the guilty plea of his 'own free will' only last year.
Unfortunately for the criminal in question, the fact that he made this 'sworn on-the-record statement' will do him no favours in reversing the plea, as they carry a 'strong presumption of truthfulness in later proceedings'.
Then Newton arrives at the ineffective attorneys argument.
"The errors need to be so egregious as to fall below standards of professionalism such that they were not even acting as a lawyer," the professor revealed.
"To get around it, [Kohberger would] typically need to show either that counsel withheld material information from him at the time [so his in-court answer was sincere but based on an incomplete picture] or point to new evidence unavailable when he made that statement."
In other words, his apparent hunger for the death penalty will go unsatisfied.
A timeline of the Idaho murders
12 November 2022
Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, attend a party at Chapin’s fraternity Sigma Chi. Meanwhile, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, go to sports bar the Corner Club.
13 November 2022
1.45am - Kernodle and Chapin return home to their house on King Road
1.56am - Goncalves and Mogen arrive home
2.44am - Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is spotted by a CCTV camera at Washington State University. Shortly afterwards, the car is seen again heading towards a road that connects Pullman, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho, where the victims live.
4am - Bryan Kohberger is believed to have entered the property
4.17am - A security camera reveals the sound of a barking dog, voices and what sounds like a thud. At some point around this time, their housemate Dylan Mortensen is awoken and hears a male voice say: “It's OK, Kaylee, I'm here for you.” She later hears crying and sees a masked man in the property.
4.19am - Mortensen attempts to call Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but all calls go unanswered. She started texting Bethany Funke, saying she’s ‘freaking out’ after seeing a man in a ‘ski mask’. Mortensen joins Funke in her room and they lock themselves in.
11.58am - After Mortensen calls her friend Emily Alandt, she and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson come over to the King Road property. Johnson discovers Chapin and Kernodle's bodies and calls 911.
17 November 2022
Preliminary autopsy results show all four victims were attacked with a large knife
7 December 2022
Police say they are looking to speak to any occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra from 2011-13.
30 December 2022
Kohberger is arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Police later reveal they used DNA on a knife sheath to link him to the crime scene, and tracked his car and phone across the area.
22 May 2023
Kohberger remains silent when asked to enter a plea during his arraignment. The judge enters a not guilty plea on his behalf.
26 June 2023
Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty.
28 December 2023
The King Road property where the murders took place is demolished to allow the community to heal.
17 April 2024
Kohberger’s defence team claims in court documents that phone mast data shows Kohberger was miles away from Moscow, Idaho at the time of the murders.
4 March 2025
Kohberger’s defence team say he exhibits traits of autism spectrum disorder, and putting him to death would be unconstitutional.
2 July 2025
Weeks before the trial is set to begin, Kohberger pleads guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
23 July 2025
Kohberger is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for the burglary charge.
He comes face to face with the families of his victims for the first time, who read out impact statements.
Goncalves' sister Alivea tells him that if her sister hadn’t been sleeping when he attacked, ‘Kaylee would've kicked your f**king a**’.
Meanwhile, Mortensen says she’s suffered from debilitating panic attacks since the night of the murders, telling Kohberger he has taken away her ‘ability to trust the world’.
27 July 2026
Kohberger announces he is seeking to take back his guilty plea and overturn his conviction.
He tells the New York Times: “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
Dan Seddon