Bryan Kohberger challenges conviction in Idaho murders

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 has requested a copy of the petition. Kohberger is representing himself.

Kohberger first revealed he had filed the petition in an interview with The New York Times, which reported that Kohberger is claiming he was misled into confessing. 

Kohberger pleaded guilty last July to the 2022 stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. He was sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility of parole. 

The murders and search for the suspect drew national attention in November 2022. Kohberger’s arrest in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, was announced more than a month after the murders. 

Kohberger’s guilty plea was part of a deal that spared him from the death penalty. At a hearing in July 2025, Kohberger answered “Yes” when Judge Steven Hippler asked if he murdered Chapin, Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves. When Hippler asked, “Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Kohberger said, “Yes.” 

The evidence prosecutors said they would have brought against Kohberger if the case had gone to trial included DNA linking him to a knife sheath found at the crime scene. The weapon has never been recovered. 

Prosecutors also said they planned to show surveillance video of Kohberger’s car and cellphone data placing him in the vicinity of the killings.

Kohberger’s motive remains unknown.

During a sentencing hearing weeks after his guilty plea, Kohberger showed no emotion as loved ones of the victims read statements. 

In a statement Monday, the Goncalves family said Kohberger “received exactly what he asked for: a deal that spared his life.”

“He chose not to leave his fate—or the facts of the case—to a jury,” their statement said. “He never cried foul, never claimed he was uninformed or pressured, and never suggested there were problems with the discovery materials he and his counsel had reviewed for two years that should have been challenged.”

The family condemned the attention given to Kohberger.

“The real tragedy is this: if even a fraction of the energy spent trying to free a guilty man were directed toward honoring the victims, there would be statues of them on every corner, parks bearing their names, and days set aside to remember the lives they lost at the hands of a narcissist,” they said.