Bryan Kohberger‘s petition to retract his guilty plea for the murders of college students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin has been publicly revealed.
New York Times correspondent Mike Baker uploaded a copy of the document via X on Monday, July 27, following Kohberger’s announcement.
“It is hereby declared that during attorney-client discussions, most of which included all members of Bryan C. Kohberger’s family, petitioner was convinced to falsely confess to capital murder and felony burglary by coercion, disinformation, false promises and the withholding of exculpatory discovery,” read a statement from Kohberger, 31, in the document.
Kohberger, who was represented by court appointed attorneys during the highly publicized case, claimed that counsel failed to inform him of “exculpatory discovery received during plea discussions.” One piece of evidence being the “clumps of unknown hair found in Ethan Chapin’s hands.”
“Peititioner was convinced that actual guilt was not an important factor in considering plea acceptance,” the statement continued. “Death row was imminent, and advised, to lie. Petitioner was to gain a ‘legal victory’ in entering a false plea.”
Kohberger also claimed that there was a “gross misrepresentation” and “promises” of what a life sentence would mean for him as well as a “gross misrepresentation of death row in Idaho.”
One day before, Kohberger announced that he was taking steps to withdraw his plea nearly one year after he pleaded guilty.
“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” he said in a statement to The New York Times on Sunday, July 26, adding that he has an “absolute claim of innocence.”
Kohberger told the outlet in an interview that was conducted from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution that he prepared the documentation to challenge the case on his own. He is seeking to have a lawyer appointed to him but has yet to be assigned new representation.
“Why am I breaking my silence?” he told the Times in an interview published two days before the release of a Netflix documentary on the case titled The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare on Wednesday, July 29. “A lot went wrong in those plea discussions. I really do want that to be heard.”
Mogen, 21, Goncalves, also 21, Kernodle, 20, and Chapin, also 20, were found dead in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho in November 2022. There were two survivors from the attack who were home at the time of the attack. The roommates did not report the killings until hours later after realizing what happened.
The following month, Kohberger was arrested for the murders. He entered a guilty plea more than two years later in July 2025. Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive fixed life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 10-year fixed sentence for felony burglary as part of the plea deal.
