The man who once admitted to killing four Idaho college students now says he is innocent and was pushed into that confession.
Story Snapshot
- Bryan Kohberger filed a handwritten post-conviction petition to undo his guilty plea and convictions.
- He now claims “actual innocence” and says his plea was based on false promises and bad information.
- He accuses his former lawyers of coercion and of hiding possible evidence, including “unknown hair” in a victim’s hand.
- Idaho law gives him a narrow path to challenge a guilty plea, but the legal bar is high.
A convicted killer turns on his own guilty plea
Bryan Kohberger is serving four life sentences for the 2022 murders of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
About a year after pleading guilty, he has filed a handwritten petition from prison asking an Idaho judge to let him take it all back and go to trial.
Court records say he submitted a post-conviction relief petition in Ada County District Court and is representing himself instead of using a lawyer.
In this new filing and in a statement given to The New York Times, Kohberger now claims he is actually innocent. He says his truth is “actual innocence” and that his guilty plea “hinged on false promises and blatant disinformation” that must be undone.
That is a sharp reversal from his courtroom confession in 2025, when he told the judge under oath that he was guilty and accepted four life sentences to avoid a possible death penalty.
The claims inside the handwritten petition
The petition lays out several reasons Kohberger says his plea should be withdrawn. He alleges his former defense team convinced him to falsely confess through “coercion, misinformation, false promises, and the withholding of exculpatory discovery,” according to summaries of the document.
He claims his lawyers pressured him and told him that a plea “need not be truthful” if it brought a supposed “legal victory.”
Bryan Kohberger wants to take back his guilty plea that resulted in four life sentences without parole for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students.
In a new court filing, he claims the plea was based on "false promises and blatant disinformation" and argues that… pic.twitter.com/LpRwu2O1qI
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 28, 2026
One detailed claim is about physical evidence. Kohberger says his attorneys failed to tell him about “exculpatory discovery” during plea talks, including clumps of “unknown hair” found in the hands of victim Ethan Chapin.
He argues this hair should have been tested and explored as possible proof that someone else was involved. At this point, reporters have not shared lab reports or chain-of-custody records that show what, if anything, those hairs mean, so the public only sees his description of them.
Attacking the lawyers, the promises, and the fear of death row
Kohberger also accuses his legal team of painting a false picture of his choices. He says they misled him about the realities of life in prison compared with life on death row, and that they promised better prison conditions if he pleaded guilty.
He claims they scared him with “elaborate lies” about how bad death row would be and told him that guilt or innocence was not important when deciding whether to take the plea deal.
These are serious accusations. If a lawyer truly told a client to lie in court and hide evidence, that would violate those values and basic ethics. But right now these claims come only from Kohberger’s own petition and interview. No judge has found them true, and no independent evidence has backed them yet.
The legal path he is trying to use
Idaho’s Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act gives convicted defendants a way to challenge a case after sentencing. A person can argue there was a constitutional violation, new material evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel, or an innocence claim that meets state rules.
That is why Kohberger filed this petition now. Reporters say his deadline for post-conviction relief was in early September, so he is using his window before it closes.
Bryan Kohberger, the man serving multiple life sentences for the murders of four University of Idaho students, is challenging his conviction.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice doctoral student, filed a petition for post-conviction relief Monday, court records show. CBS News… pic.twitter.com/A9c4VOWb3w
— 0️⃣BlackBetty ⚓️ (@BabyD1111229) July 28, 2026
There is a catch. Once a defendant has pleaded guilty and been sentenced, Idaho requires proof of “manifest injustice” to set aside that plea. Courts generally see the sworn plea hearing as strong evidence that the plea was voluntary and informed.
Kohberger told the judge he understood the deal and was satisfied with his lawyers. To win now, he must convince the court that what happened behind the scenes was so wrong that it overcomes his own words from that day.
Public reaction and what comes next
The case is one of the most watched murder prosecutions in recent years, so every move draws intense attention. Many news outlets describe his petition as a steep uphill battle rather than a likely path to freedom.
Families of the victims have reportedly said the move reopens old wounds, which fits a broader concern among many Americans about endless litigation that drags out justice after a confession and sentence are already in place.
From here, prosecutors have a set time, reported as about thirty days, to file a response to the petition. The judge can then decide whether to dismiss the case on the papers or set an evidentiary hearing where witnesses, lawyers, and possibly experts would testify about what really happened during plea talks.
Until that happens, Kohberger’s claims are allegations, not proven facts. The system now has to test those claims against the record, the ethics rules, and expectations about telling the truth in court.
Sources:
cbsnews.com, nbcnews.com, fox13seattle.com, abcnews.com, idahostatesman.com
