Kohberger Family Backs Bid to Undo Guilty Plea

Bryan Kohberger’s family is publicly backing his effort to undo the guilty plea that sent him to prison for the murders of four University of Idaho students. The family said it supports his decision to seek post-conviction relief and wants the case resolved through the legal process.

Kohberger, 31, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the murders of Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four students were killed in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Kohberger later received four consecutive life sentences.

The guilty plea appeared to bring the criminal case to a final legal stage. His new petition now challenges that outcome from inside the post-conviction process.

His Family Says It Wants a Trial

People reported Sept. 17 that Kohberger’s family issued a statement supporting his attempt to withdraw the plea. The family said its position was not meant to disregard the victims or their relatives and described a desire for a conclusive resolution through the courts.

Kohberger’s parents and sisters were involved in many of the discussions that preceded the plea agreement, according to an affidavit he filed with his petition. He now alleges that his former attorneys pressured him to confess falsely, misled him about the consequences of pleading guilty and withheld potentially favorable evidence.

Those assertions are allegations made by Kohberger in post-conviction filings. They have not been accepted as fact by the court.

Prosecutors have moved to dismiss his request for post-conviction relief. Judge Steven Hippler, who sentenced Kohberger, scheduled a status conference and evidentiary hearing for June 2027, according to People.

The Plea Ended the Threat of a Death Sentence

Kohberger’s 2025 plea agreement removed the possibility of a death-penalty trial. He admitted guilt to the murders and received life sentences without the years of litigation that a capital case could have produced.

That history makes the current filing unusual because Kohberger is not asking a jury to review a still-pending murder charge. He is seeking to reopen a case in which he already entered guilty pleas and was sentenced.

His petition argues that the pleas were not entered under circumstances that should remain binding. The state disputes his effort, and the court has not ruled that the pleas were invalid.

Kohberger is also seeking to remove Hippler from the post-conviction case. People reported that a hearing on that request was scheduled for Oct. 15.

Four Families Remain at the Center of the Case

The legal dispute comes more than three years after the deaths of Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin. Their families lived through an extended investigation, Kohberger’s arrest, years of pretrial proceedings and then the sudden shift to a guilty plea.

Kohberger’s family acknowledged those losses in its public statement. It said it continues to respect the memory of the victims while also supporting Kohberger’s attempt to challenge the plea.

That does not change the current legal posture. Kohberger remains convicted and is serving four consecutive life sentences unless and until a court grants relief.

The petition now gives the case a new procedural path: the defense must persuade the court that there is a legal basis to undo a plea that resolved one of the country’s most closely watched murder prosecutions.

For the victims’ families and the Moscow community, the guilty plea had represented a legal endpoint. Kohberger’s new filing does not erase that judgment, but it has reopened litigation over how that endpoint was reached.

The next phase is procedural rather than a new trial. The court must first decide whether Kohberger has shown grounds for post-conviction relief, while prosecutors argue the existing convictions should remain in place. Until a judge rules otherwise, the guilty pleas and life sentences continue to control his legal status.

References: Bryan Kohberger’s Family Backs His Bid to Undo Guilty Plea: ‘We Seek Answers’ | Bryan Kohberger Says Family Was in Plea Talks, Seeks to Undo Deal

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