Convicted Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 15 for a hearing tied to his request to remove Judge Steven Hippler from the case, part of a broader effort to challenge his guilty plea through post-conviction relief.
Kohberger, 31, submitted a handwritten petition in July arguing that his attorneys provided ineffective counsel. He also claimed his guilty plea was “not knowingly or voluntarily entered because it was induced by unkept promises” and was “not voluntarily entered because of threats asserted by petitioner’s (Kohberger’s) legal counsel.”
The court assigned Moscow, Idaho, attorney Greg Rauch to represent him, and New York private defense lawyer Jason Goldman later became part of Kohberger’s new legal team.
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Bryan Kohberger is seen at the Ada County Courthouse during his sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. He pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students nearly three years earlier. (Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)
His new lawyers are expected to file an amended petition by Nov. 13 — four years to the day after the murders.
“We think the [amended petition] and evidentiary hearing will naturally address some of the outstanding and unanswered questions,” Goldman told News Media last week. “That said, the main priority right now is to scrutinize the constitutional issues surrounding Bryan’s plea.”
Judge Steven Hippler of Idaho’s 4th Judicial District in Ada County rejected the latest attempt by Bryan Kohberger’s defense to drop the death penalty as a possible sentence if a jury convicts him of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022. (Katherine Jones/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Kohberger pleaded guilty on July 2, 2025, to four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge for the stabbing deaths of 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves as well as 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
On July 23, 2025, Hippler sentenced him to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus another 10 years, as part of a plea deal in which Kohberger avoided the death penalty.
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Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
Rauch filed a 22-page motion to have the judge disqualified on Aug. 27, questioning Hippler’s impartiality after he declined to give Kohberger’s former defense team more time when they said they were not finished with discovery as the expected trial date approached last year.
Kohberger pleaded guilty weeks before it would have taken place. Rauch also took issue with some of the language Hippler used to describe his client at sentencing: “someone in whom the Court could identify nothing remaining that was ‘good or intrinsically human.'”
Judge Steven Hippler speaks at the sentencing hearing of Bryan Kohberger at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. (Kyle Green/AP Photo, Pool)
In the prosecution’s fight against his petition for post-conviction relief, Deputy Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Keith Scholl asked for the transcripts from both hearings, in which Kohberger admitted guilt and affirmed he was entering his plea knowingly and under no duress.
In a separate order last week, Hippler gave Kohberger’s lawyers until Sept. 10 to explain why the court should seal a supplemental filing attached to their motion to disqualify him from the case.
They’ve also been ordered to share the confidential filing with the Latah County Prosecutor’s office. It has not been made public and will remain sealed at least until the deadline — likely longer after a justification is given.
The hearing on the motion to disqualify will be held on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 1:30 p.m. MT via WebEx.