Bryan Kohberger’s recent move to retract his guilty plea related to the University of Idaho murders faces significant legal hurdles, according to experts.
Back in 2025, Kohberger admitted to the murders of students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. This plea bargain allowed him to dodge a potential death sentence, instead resulting in a life term without parole.
Kohberger now seeks to change his plea, but legal avenues are dwindling. Neama Rahmani, President of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, shared insights exclusively with Oxygen on the matter.
“Bryan Kohberger’s opportunity to appeal his sentence has expired,” remarked Rahmani, who isn’t directly tied to the case. “Now, he can only challenge his guilty plea and conviction by alleging violations of his constitutional rights.”
Rahmani highlighted that mere regret over the decision isn’t sufficient grounds to reverse a guilty plea. Kohberger must instead persuade a judge that there were fundamental missteps in the legal proceedings.
Kohberger could, however, argue that he didn’t knowingly enter the plea, Rahmani explained, and that he is actually innocent, that prosecutors withheld important evidence or that his own attorneys failed to properly represent him.
Of those possibilities, Rahmani believes only the last two have any realistic chance of being argued.
He pointed to reports that one of the victims was found with another person’s hair in her hand, which is referenced in Kohberger’s new petition, as first reported by the New York Times.
“If prosecutors failed to turn over that potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense,” Rahmani said, “It could form the basis of a constitutional challenge. Likewise, if Kohberger’s attorneys knew about the evidence but failed to tell him before he pleaded guilty, the defense could argue he received ineffective assistance of counsel.”
“If you’re a prosecutor, you have to disclose any exculpatory evidence. That’s called Brady material under a famous Supreme Court case. So obviously a victim having someone else’s hair in their hand, that’s potentially exculpatory,” Rahmani explained. “So if the prosecution didn’t disclose it, that’s a potential violation and a grounds for him to withdraw his plea.”
Rahmani also added, ”If Bryan Kohberger’s lawyers knew about this hair and didn’t disclose it to their client and he pleaded guilty as a result. Maybe, just maybe the judge would unwind the plea. But that would require (his) defense team to actually concede that in open court or in a declaration that they knew about the evidence and didn’t tell their client.”
Oxygen has reached out to Kohberger’s former legal team for comment.
31-year-old Kohberger continued to assert his “absolute claim of innocence” in a prison phone call with the New York Times, marking the first time that he’s publicly spoken about the murders since his 2022 arrest.
The former doctoral student refused to discuss the evidence in the case or provide any additional details about his new claims.
Oxygen reached to Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson about Kohberger’s recent claims, but did not receive an immediate reply.
Still, Rahmani emphasized that judges rarely allow defendants to withdraw guilty pleas.
“It’s not uncommon for criminal defendants to want to withdraw their plea,” he said. “It’s very uncommon for it to be granted.”
Even if Kohberger were successful, Rahmani noted that prosecutors could once again seek the death penalty because the protections of his plea agreement would no longer apply.
As Rahmani said, “I think there’s almost no world where Bryan Kohberger walks free.”