Bryan Kohberger has claimed that he was duped into falsely confessing to the murder of four students and wants to retract his guilty plea.
The 32-year-old from Pennsylvania admitted last July to murdering four University of Idaho students in a quadruple homicide in 2022 that shocked the US and triggered a nationwide manhunt.
Kohberger waived his right to appeal as part of his guilty plea, in an agreement that took the death penalty off the table while handing him four consecutive life sentences for murder.
However, he has now filed a petition seeking to abandon his guilty plea and challenge his conviction, claiming that his initial confession was “hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation”.
In a handwritten document filed in Idaho’s Ada County Court and made public on Monday, Kohberger claimed he was “convinced to falsely confess to capital murder, and felony burglary, by coercion, disinformation, false promises and the withholding of exculpatory discovery”.
He alleged that he was “convinced that actual guilt was not an important factor in considering plea acceptance”, and that he was “advised to lie” to avoid the death penalty.
The move was met with fury from relatives of the murdered students. The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims, said in a statement on Monday that Kohberger was like a “mosquito you just can’t seem to swat.”
“He appeared in court for a hearing before a judge, accompanied by his four lawyers. He chose not to leave his fate – or...
Bryan Kohberger has claimed that he was duped into falsely confessing to the murder of four students and wants to retract his guilty plea. The 32-year-old from Pennsylvania admitted last July to m...