Media: Overturn gag order in Idaho murder case

BOISE, Idaho — Thirty news organizations have asked the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn a gag order in a case against a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death.

The challenge, filed Monday evening, comes just a few days after an attorney representing the family of one of the victims filed an opposition to the gag order in state court, saying it is overly broad and places an undue burden on the families.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the stabbing deaths in Moscow, Idaho. Prosecutors have yet to reveal if they intend to seek the death penalty.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found Nov. 13 at a rental home across the street from the University of Idaho campus.

The slayings shocked the rural Idaho community and neighboring Pullman, Washington, where Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University.

The case garnered widespread publicity, and in January Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan

Marshall issued the sweeping gag order, barring attorneys, law enforcement agencies and others associated with the case from talking or writing about it.

The coalition of news organizations, which includes The Associated Press, contends the gag order violates the right to free speech by prohibiting it from happening in the first place.

“Justice cannot survive behind walls of silence. For that reason, ‘a responsible press has always been regarded as the handmaiden of effective judicial administration, especially in the criminal field,’ ” coalition attorney Wendy Olson wrote in the court filing.