Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty last year to murdering four University of Idaho students, is now asking a court to let him withdraw that plea, claiming he is innocent and was misled into confessing.
In a statement provided to The New York Times and filed in court records, Kohberger said his plea “must be withdrawn” because it was based on “false promises and blatant disinformation,” and that his “actual innocence” is his truth. He’s asking to reopen the case and go to trial — a striking reversal from July 2025, when he pleaded guilty in an Ada County courtroom to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in exchange for four consecutive life sentences without parole, avoiding the death penalty for the November 2022 stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Court filings show Kohberger is now alleging he was coerced into the plea through “disinformation, false promises and the withholding of exculpatory discovery,” and he has reportedly said he’d welcome prosecutors seeking the death penalty again if the case were reopened. He is currently serving his sentence at a maximum-security prison in Kuna, Idaho.
Legal experts note that withdrawing an accepted guilty plea after sentencing faces a high bar in most jurisdictions, typically requiring clear evidence of ineffective counsel or a coerced confession rather than simply a change of heart. The Idaho attorney general’s office has not yet publicly detailed its response to the filing.