Episode Details

In March 2024, Judge John Judge temporarily barred both Bryan Kohberger’s defense team and prosecutors from contacting prospective jurors in Latah County, either directly or through third parties, after a dispute erupted over a telephone survey commissioned by the defense. Kohberger’s attorneys had hired social psychologist Bryan Edelman to poll roughly 400 local residents as part of their effort to show that pretrial publicity had contaminated the jury pool and that the case should be moved out of Latah County. Prosecutors objected, arguing that some of the survey questions exposed potential jurors to inflammatory or inaccurate information about the case and could themselves prejudice the very jury pool the defense claimed was already tainted. Judge said he had not known the polling was occurring and reacted strongly, calling the situation a serious matter before issuing the temporary prohibition on contact.

The defense pushed back, arguing that the survey was legitimate research necessary to support Kohberger’s change-of-venue motion and did not violate the court’s gag order. Anne Taylor accused prosecutors of trying to shut down constitutionally protected defense preparation and maintained that polling community attitudes was different from improperly influencing jurors. After holding hearings and reviewing the questions, Judge ultimately lifted the blanket prohibition in April 2024 and allowed the defense survey to continue without modification. So the warning to both sides was temporary, but it reflected how seriously the court viewed any outside contact with people who might eventually sit on the jury: neither prosecutors nor the defense were going to be permitted to shape, question or potentially influence prospective jurors without the court keeping a close watch on what they were doing.