Bryan Kohberger appeared in court this past week for a hearing regarding a survey conducted by his defense team to determine if Latah County could produce a fair jury.
It was revealed that two of the questions asked in the survey were not true. Kohberger did not stalk one of the victims, neither did he follow one of the victims on social media, according to both sides of the court.
The expert Kohberger’s defense hired, Dr. Brian Edelman, testified in court this past week and explained why he included questions that had false information. He explained that in conducting surveys, open-ended questions do not reveal everything a person knows about a specific case. That close-ended “yes or no” questions reveal exactly what someone knows about a case.
He testified that he was aware of the non-dissemination order and that it did not change his work. He testified that the survey’s purpose was to discover the knowledge that citizens of Latah County have of the case, and how it correlates with media coverage. He explained that the questions he used were completely standard in his field.
He shared that only 4% of survey participants did not know about the case and that 96% of participants knew additional information that they failed to mention in the initial open-ended question. 81% of participants believed that Kohberger was guilty and knew 7 out of the 9 questions asked. He revealed that if a participant did not know of the case, they would not be questioned further.
Edelman testified that even though two of the questions had false information, it did not excuse it from being prejudicial bias that potential jurors could have. He stated that the information had been widely disseminated by “pervasive” media coverage and that his survey was to measure the percentage of people who have been exposed to false information.
“We are not disseminating. We are asking people what they know,” Edelman said.
The prosecution did not like that Edelman did not disclose to participants that two of the questions had false information and that the questions should be taken out of the survey.
The defense stated the survey was done legally and did not violate the non-dissemination order. They also said they must finish the survey to see if there is presumed prejudice in Latah County.
“Our defense team firmly, and I mean firmly, believes in Mr. Kohberger’s innocence, and right now he’s being held to have a trial in a county that believes that he is guilty,” Elisa Massoth, one of Kohberger’s defense attorneys, said.
The prosecution still believes that the non-dissemination order was violated. They stated that the defense needs to back up, create a new survey, and continue.
Judge John Judge will decide on the survey in the coming weeks. A court hearing has been scheduled for June 27 to hear arguments on the change of venue.
No trial date has been set.
Ben DeWitt can be reached at [email protected] or on X @BenDeWitt321