Accused of killing four students in Idaho wants to push judge off the case

Bryan Kohberger, as well as the defense attorney, considered that Judge Steven Hipler should not be allowed to judge the case of a review of his conviction. 

To remember that Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to the five charges he was charged with in July 2025 following an agreement that spared him criminal justice from being sentenced to death.

Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 21, and 20-year-old Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, were murdered early on November 13, 2022, in the house where the three young women lived, near the University of Idaho campus.

Already in August this year, Kohberger said he wanted to cancel the confession of guilt, having claimed to have received “ineffective” legal assistance and that he is innocent.

However, last week, Bryan Kohberger and the defense team filed a motion for Steven Hipler's removal. Gregory Rauch, the defendant's lawyer, stated that certain comments made by the judge, as well as actions taken on the day the sentence was read should disqualify him from the case. 

People magazine, which had access to the motion, states that Gregory Raunch highlighted some of the observations made in the sentence, such as when Hipler said that “even if I could make him talk, which I legally cannot, how can anyone be sure that he is telling the truth?”.

For the lawyer, the comment “questioned Kohberger’s full ability to be sincere”. He also stressed the judge’s “declared distrust” would make it difficult to know whether he considered “a certain false testimony” or if he “made a prior judgment on Kohberger’s ability to tell the truth.”. 

Rauch also highlighted a report by People where the judge appeared crying on the day Bryan Kohberger's sentence was read and stressed that the judge refused the defense's request to have more time to prepare for the trial. 

About six days later, note, Kohberger eventually pleaded guilty to the murders of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, and 20-year-old Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. 

Now, in the motion presented, the lawyer indicated that these six days will be the main focus of the conviction review process, since he seeks to determine “if the [previous] defense attorney had sufficient time and assistance to ensure that Kohberger understood the circumstances rationally.”. 

Why does Kohberger want to cancel confession?

Bryan Kohberger states, in judicial documents obtained by the American television station NBC News, that he received “ineffective” legal assistance from defense lawyers and that he was “convinced to falsely confess” a crime that he claims not to have committed. 

In the request for criminal review, the killer wrote that he believed that confession of guilt was not an important factor in considering acceptance of the plea agreement. He also said he was “advised to lie” and that he would get a “legal victory” by presenting a “false statement”. 

The documents go against the interview given by the New York Times (NYT), where he claimed to be innocent and was convinced to confess the murders. 

“My innocence is my truth and the request for confession based on false promises and flagrant misinformation must be withdrawn,” he said in a statement sent to NYT last Sunday.

“The Idaho Murders: University Nightmare”

On March 29, it premiered a documentary series on the brutal crime that rocked Idaho in 2022. 

Consisting of three episodes, “The Idaho Murders: University Nightmare” shows unpublished images of the investigations, police records, archived materials and testimonies of family members and friends of the victims.