Episode Details

Bryan Kohberger’s defense filed its third motion to compel discovery in June 2023, arguing that prosecutors had still not turned over important material connected primarily to the DNA investigation. The defense sought records concerning every DNA profile developed during the investigation, not just the male DNA recovered from the snap of the knife sheath. That included information about profiles uploaded into state and national DNA databases, any database hits generated during those searches, laboratory manuals governing the use of those systems, communications between laboratory personnel and investigators, records involving outsourced DNA testing, unexpected laboratory results and corrective actions. Kohberger’s attorneys argued that simply receiving the final laboratory conclusions was not enough. They wanted the underlying material necessary for their own experts to evaluate how the testing had been conducted, whether alternative DNA profiles had been identified and whether anything occurring during the laboratory process could undermine or qualify the State’s conclusions.

The most consequential portion of the motion concerned investigative genetic genealogy, the process investigators used after the sheath DNA failed to produce a traditional CODIS identification. Kohberger’s attorneys demanded the genealogy records behind the investigation, including DNA data uploaded to genealogy services, search results, family trees, communications, additional samples collected during the genealogy investigation and information identifying genetic relatives who had appeared as potential matches. The defense maintained that it needed this material to examine the reliability and legality of the process that ultimately helped investigators focus on Kohberger, while prosecutors sought a protective order limiting disclosure of some of the genealogy information because it involved private individuals who had never been suspects. The dispute eventually required extensive briefing, expert declarations and a hearing before Judge John Judge, who ultimately ordered prosecutors to submit certain IGG materials to the court for an in camera review. The third motion to compel therefore became one of the earliest major battles over whether the defense would be permitted to look behind the State’s finished DNA evidence and scrutinize the investigative process that had helped lead authorities to Kohberger in the first place.



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