Idaho prosecutors push back on Kohberger bid to delay post-conviction filing
Bryan Kohberger's post-conviction bid to withdraw a guilty plea entered July 2, 2025, is meeting direct resistance from Latah County prosecutors. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Keith Scholl filed a response characterizing…
Key takeaways
- Latah County prosecutors, through Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Keith Scholl, are opposing Bryan Kohberger's request for more discovery time, calling it a "fishing expedition" for constitutional arguments.
- Kohberger pleaded guilty on July 2, 2025, to four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge, then a year later filed a handwritten motion claiming ineffective counsel and that he was misled into the deal.
- Judge Steven Hippler set a November 13 deadline for Kohberger's new team, led by attorney Greg Rauch, to file an amended post-conviction petition, four years to the day after the murders.
- Prosecutors have filed a motion to dismiss Kohberger's original handwritten petition, though it is not expected to succeed if an amended filing replaces it before November 13.
- Kohberger's lawyers have separately moved to disqualify Judge Hippler over bias concerns and to transfer the case back to Latah County from Ada County.
Bryan Kohberger's post-conviction bid to withdraw a guilty plea entered July 2, 2025, is meeting direct resistance from Latah County prosecutors. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Keith Scholl filed a response characterizing the defense's request for more discovery time as a "fishing expedition" in search of constitutional arguments, opposing any extension ahead of the November 13 deadline for an amended petition, four years to the day after the murders of four University of Idaho students in Moscow.
The filing and the deadline
Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge for the stabbing deaths of 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. A year after that plea, he submitted a self-produced handwritten motion arguing his former defense attorneys provided ineffective counsel and that he was misled into accepting the deal. Judge Steven Hippler gave Kohberger's new team, led by attorney Greg Rauch, until November 13 to replace it with an amended petition.
Rauch's team contends the deadline is premature because discovery materials, due on a separate schedule next year, have not been produced. Without those materials, they argue, claims omitted from the amended petition would be irrevocably waived. Scholl's reply does not accept that framing. "Unfortunately for [Kohberger], that is not how discovery in post-conviction proceedings works," he wrote.
Randolph Rice, a Maryland-based attorney and legal analyst following the case, drew the line plainly. Post-conviction discovery is designed to help attorneys prove a legitimate constitutional claim already on record, Rice said, not to cast a net hoping a constitutional violation surfaces.
Prosecutors have also filed a motion to dismiss Kohberger's original handwritten petition outright. That motion is not expected to succeed given the likelihood that Rauch's team will replace it with an amended filing before November 13.
What to watch
Kohberger's lawyers have separately moved to disqualify Judge Hippler over potential bias concerns and to transfer the case back to Latah County. His previous defense team had sought the original venue change out of Latah County on fair trial grounds; the court relocated proceedings to Ada County. Both the Latah County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and Rauch are based in Moscow. A 2027 hearing is not guaranteed as prosecutors push for quick dismissal of the post-conviction case.
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Filed via foxnews.com