In a recent order, Latah County District Court Judge John Judge lifted the pause on defense surveys in the Bryan Kohberger murder trial. The defense team had been conducting surveys as part of their efforts to seek a change of venue, citing intense local media coverage.
Judge ruled that most of the survey questions did not violate the court’s non-dissemination order, as they were based on information that had already been released to the public. However, two questions that were not previously public record had been included in the surveys. Judge determined that these questions were now in the public record and could not be excluded from the surveys.
While Judge acknowledged that the questions may contain potentially prejudicial information, he left it up to the defense to decide whether the potential benefits of asking these questions outweigh the risks. The defense team believes the surveys are crucial for their efforts to obtain a change of venue for Kohberger’s trial.
Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in the fall of 2022: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The surveys being conducted by the defense team are part of the pretrial process. The trial is currently scheduled to begin in June 2023, but it is possible that the date could be changed based on the outcome of the defense’s motion for a change of venue.
