The judge in the Idaho student murder case has said that he is in "total shock" after Bryan Kohberger's legal team phoned hundreds of potential jurors to ask them about the case.
The defense team were attempting to show that local jurors are prejudiced against Kohberger, who has been charged with killing four students in a Moscow, Idaho home in 2022.
Judge John Judge accused Kohberger's lawyer, Anne Taylor, of acting "behind my back."
During a terse hearing on Thursday, Judge said that he had been given no notice of the phone poll.
"This was a total shock to me," Judge told Taylor. "Because this is a big deal, and I take it very, very seriously. And I was surprised, OK, that this was happening behind our backs—my back."
The hearing was broadcast live on YouTube.
He also took issue with Taylor's claim that Kohberger had a constitutional right to conduct a poll of jurors' attitudes.
"Now I'm being accused of violating a due process, which is a whole big issue for me," Judge told the hearing.
He was reacting to Taylor's latest court document, which she filed on Wednesday.
In it, she claimed that potential jurors were biased against Kohberger.
"Halting preparations for his Motion for Change of Venue denies his constitutional right to a fair trial," she states in the document. "The survey work is complete for Latah County and it shows that the jury pool in Latah County is biased."
Newsweek sought email comment from Taylor on Friday.
Kohberger, 29, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection with the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four University of Idaho students were found dead in their off-campus home on November 13, 2022.
Kohberger was arrested at his parents' residence in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, in December 2022. The Washington State University graduate student has maintained his innocence, previously standing silent during his arraignment. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
Last week, Taylor criticized an order by Judge that barred both sides from communicating with potential jurors in the quadruple homicide case.
"On March 22, 2024, late on a Friday afternoon the State filed its Motion to Prevent Contact with Potential Jurors. The motion included attachments. The late Friday afternoon filing was a strategic action by the state," Taylor wrote in the filing.
"The Defense informed the State surveys such as these were common practice," she wrote. "The State could have easily, and likely did, find that this very expert did similar survey work in Idaho on at least two other occasions."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
