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Bryan Kohberger faces a “monumental uphill battle” in his effort to withdraw his guilty plea in the murders of four University of Idaho students, according to an attorney who represented D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo and once helped another client successfully withdraw a guilty plea before winning an acquittal.
Mark Petrovich, who represented Malvo in post-conviction proceedings in Virginia and has decades of criminal defense experience, told Fox News Digital that defendants rarely succeed in withdrawing guilty pleas after sentencing, even in cases involving claims that they were unaware of potentially exculpatory evidence before entering the plea.
He cautioned against drawing direct comparisons between Malvo’s post-conviction litigation and Kohberger’s effort to withdraw his guilty plea. Malvo’s appeals stemmed from changes in constitutional law governing juvenile sentencing, while Kohberger is attempting to undo a plea agreement he entered as an adult after avoiding the death penalty.
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“It’s a monumental uphill battle,” Petrovich said. “First of all, getting the judge to allow you to withdraw the plea, and then second of all to winning any new proceeding, because there’s a lot against you.”
Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. He was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole after accepting a plea agreement that spared him from the death penalty.
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In recent court filings, Kohberger claimed he was pressured into accepting the plea agreement, did not fully understand potentially exculpatory evidence before pleading guilty and was misled about the conditions he would face while incarcerated.
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He contends those factors undermined the voluntariness of his decision to plead guilty.
Petrovich said he once represented a client who sought to withdraw a guilty plea before sentencing. A judge granted the request, the case proceeded to trial and the client was acquitted, but he said Kohberger’s circumstances are fundamentally different because he has already been sentenced.
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“You can’t wait until after you’re sentenced and see what the consequences of the plea are and then change your plea,” Petrovich said. “It’s going to be a very, very difficult burden to overcome.”
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Petrovich said Kohberger would face two significant hurdles even if a judge allowed him to withdraw his plea.
One would be convincing jurors after previously admitting guilt under oath.
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Even if a judge allowed Kohberger to withdraw his plea, Petrovich said jurors would almost certainly learn he had already admitted guilt, creating another significant obstacle at trial.
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“One thing that’s important is that you still can’t hide from the jury the fact that you said under oath that you’re guilty,” Petrovich said. “Even if you withdraw, then you have to explain that … if you’re going to get anywhere with any kind of jury finding.”
Petrovich also questioned whether Kohberger’s attorneys would have advised him to accept a plea agreement without first reviewing the evidence disclosed during discovery.
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He noted that defense attorneys handling capital cases typically spend years reviewing discovery before recommending whether a client should plead guilty.
“The attorneys on the case … were intimately familiar with the evidence and the information that was provided to them by law enforcement and prosecution,” Petrovich said. “I’m sure they knew all about everything. If they encouraged him or if there was a discussion and a plea was decided on, I’m sure it was for good reason.”
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Kohberger’s case is not the first involving a notorious killer who later sought to undo a guilty plea.
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in 1969 to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to avoid a potential death sentence. Three days after entering his guilty plea, Ray sought to withdraw it, arguing he had been pressured into confessing. He spent the rest of his life trying to undo the plea but died in prison in 1998 without ever receiving the jury trial he sought.
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Serial killer Clifton Bloomfield unsuccessfully sought to withdraw guilty pleas after admitting to five murders in New Mexico to avoid capital punishment. Washington serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. also challenged his plea agreement after admitting to murdering 13 women, but courts ultimately rejected both efforts.
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Kohberger’s plea agreement spared him from facing a capital trial and ended years of pretrial litigation in one of the country’s most closely watched murder prosecutions.
Petrovich said that history, combined with the years of discovery and plea negotiations leading up to Kohberger’s agreement, makes the effort to withdraw it especially difficult.
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