The judge tells lawyers to stop being so reserved in the case of Idaho College murders

Boise, Idaho – An Idaho judge warns lawyers to stop presenting so many sealed documents in the case of murder of a accused man in the Stabbed deaths of four students from the Idaho University.

Bryan Kohberger’s lawyers and prosecutors have converted the secret of the rule instead of an exception, the Judge of 4th District Steven Hippler wrote on Monday in a court order.

“This goes against the rights of the public’s first amendment to know what is happening in their courts,” Hipler wrote. He ordered the lawyers to use the less restrictive steps necessary to protect confidential information in the case, such as writing some lines or using initials instead of an individual’s full name.

Kohberger is accused of four positions of murder in the death of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, students who were killed early in the morning of November 13, 2022, in a rental house near their campus in Moscow, Idaho. When he was asked to enter a supplication last year, Kohberger was silent, which led a judge to enter a plea without stopping in his name. Prosecutors have said they will look for the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.

The Hippler directive occurred as a wave of new motions before the August trial, including a sealed defense motion to get the death penalty from the table that Autistic spectrum disorder cited.

Other sealed movements include one about whether the terms “psycho” or “sociopath” can be used during the trial, and one of the prosecutors about the presence of immediate family members in the courtroom during the trial. Some of the currently sealed documents will be written and public facts, and others will remain sealed, the judge ruled.

A trial is expected to begin on August 11 and last more than three months.