Kohberger Granted June 2027 Hearings to Withdraw Guilty Plea

A judge has granted convicted quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger the opportunity to seek the withdrawal of his guilty plea, scheduling hearings for June 2027 despite prosecutors' objections. The decision opens a new chapter in a case that has already seen Kohberger admit to the 2022 stabbings of four University of Idaho students, only to later proclaim his innocence.

Judge Steven Hippler, who presided over Kohberger's guilty plea in July 2025, set a status conference for June 3, 2027, and an evidentiary hearing for June 17, 2027. The hearings will address Kohberger's petition for postconviction relief, filed in late July 2026, in which he seeks to vacate his plea and have the case reopened. In his handwritten filing, the 31-year-old former criminology student claims he was "convinced to falsely confess" by his previous defense team through coercion, false promises, and the withholding of exculpatory evidence. He specifically alleges his attorneys failed to properly address hair evidence found in victim Ethan Chapin's hand that DNA testing excluded him from.

Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin,...