The Brief
- Media outlets requested an Idaho judge to lift the gag order in the Bryan Kohberger case following his guilty plea.
- Kohberger admitted to murdering four University of Idaho students, avoiding the death penalty with life sentences.
- The gag order, initially to ensure a fair trial, is argued to infringe on First Amendment rights now that no trial will occur.
A group of media outlets large and small has asked an Idaho judge to lift the gag order surrounding the Bryan Kohberger case, now that he has pleaded guilty and there is no investigation to protect.
At a change of plea hearing last week, prosecutors asked to have the gag, officially called a “non-dissemination order,” remain in place until Kohberger’s official sentencing on July 23. Kohberger’s defense did not object, and Judge Steven Hippler granted the request.
Then-Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall put the gag order in place days after Kohberger’s arrest at his parents’ house on Dec. 30, 2022. The stated aim was to protect Kohberger’s right to a fair trial by limiting extrajudicial information available to the potential jury pool.
Much of the case proceeded behind closed doors until Hippler became the third judge to preside over the case following a change of venue that moved it from Latah County to Ada County.…