{"id":218546,"date":"2026-07-28T08:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/bryan-kohberger-files-a-petition-to-challenge-his-guilty-plea-and-conviction-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:34:22","slug":"bryan-kohberger-files-a-petition-to-challenge-his-guilty-plea-and-conviction-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/bryan-kohberger-files-a-petition-to-challenge-his-guilty-plea-and-conviction-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryan Kohberger files a petition to challenge his guilty plea and conviction – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
Bryan Kohberger, the man convicted of killing four University of Idaho students <\/a>in 2022, is seeking to abandon his guilty plea and wants his day in court.
Kohberger, who pleaded guilty in July 2025 to avoid a quadruple murder trial and is serving four life sentences<\/a>, filed a \u201cpetition for post conviction relief\u201d Monday in the Ada County District Court in Idaho.
A petition for post-conviction relief is a way to challenge a conviction outside the appeals process. The court record indicates that Kohberger is representing himself.
Kohberger, in court documents obtained by NBC News, stated that he received \u201cineffective\u201d counsel from his defense lawyers and that he was \u201cconvinced to falsely confess\u201d to a crime he says he did not commit.
Kohberger wrote that he was convinced that actual guilt was not an important factor in considering the plea acceptance.
He wrote that he was \u201cadvised to lie\u201d and told he would gain a \u201clegal victory\u201d by entering a \u201cfalse plea.\u201d
Kohberger\u2019s lawyers did not immediately respond Mondayto requests for comment.
The documents echo claims Kohberger made earlier in an interview with The New York Times in which he said<\/a> he is innocent and had been misled into confessing to the murders.
\u201cMy actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,\u201d he said in a statement to the newspaper Sunday night.
Dismissing the state investigators\u2019 account of what happened as a \u201cmyopic narrative\u201d and a \u201cwork of fiction,\u201d Kohberger said in the statement that \u201cits faulty premises were never challenged at trial.\u201d
\u201cCircumnavigated by a broken plea, the trial never provided the public the clarity conducive to closure, and justice shall remain abjectly miscarried unless that plea is withdrawn,\u201d the statement said.
Kohberger admitted last year to killing the four students \u2014 <\/a>Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 \u2014 at an off-campus house on Nov. 13, 2022.
A doctoral student in criminal justice at the time of the murders, <\/strong>Kohberger took a plea deal and was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences<\/a> for four counts of first-degree murder and 10 years in prison for a burglary charge.
While he told a judge that he broke into the off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, and <\/strong>killed four of the six students there, most of them as they slept, he has never said what motivated the killings.
Before the filing, Kohberger had not made any public statements suggesting he might change his plea.
Idaho Attorney General Ra\u00fal Labrador said his office \u201cstands ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure justice is fully carried out.\u201d
\u201cMy heart goes out to the families of Madison, Kaylee, Xana, and Ethan, who have already endured unimaginable loss and now must face today\u2019s deeply painful news,\u201d he posted on X<\/a>.
The Goncalves family referred to Kohberger in a statement as \u201cthe mosquito you just can\u2019t seem to swat\u201d and criticized The New York Times for providing him with a platform.
\u201cThe piece had little else to offer beyond a guilty man once again claiming he is innocent,\u201d it said.
The Goncalves family said they wanted Kohberger to face trial \u2014 and a possible death penalty. But Kohberger opted to plead guilty.
\u201cHe wants another chance to roll the dice,\u201d the family said in the statement. \u201cThe defendant will get another day in court\u2014a welcome break from solitary confinement: a ride, perhaps different food, photos taken, and the spotlight once again fixed on him and his supposed \u2018innocence\u2019.\u201d
Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeBryan Kohberger, the man convicted of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022, is seeking to abandon his guilty plea and wants his day in court.Kohberger, who pleaded guilty in July 2025 to avoid a quadruple murder trial and is serving four life sentences, filed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}