BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Bryan Kohberger was in court again Wednesday. His attorneys are arguing that a phone survey they began weeks ago should be allowed to continue after Judge Judge ordered a halt to the phone calls.
The primary issue argued by the prosecution is that certain questions asked in the survey could violate a gag order preventing sensitive information from being communicated by lawyers, and others related to the case.
The Defense argues that all of the questions relate to things that are in the public information by media coverage. The Defense says that the expert they hired to create and conduct the survey has used information already reported by the media and that nothing new has been introduced by the survey.
Judge Judge says that he is trying to balance protecting the defendant with making sure that no new information is being introduced. The Defense says that the media coverage about Kohberger has been biased and the information obtained by the survey will help determine if it has poisoned the potential jury pool against their client.
The Prosecution says that potential jurors are being "force-fed facts of the case, some of which are not true," about the trial. The Prosecution says that some of the people they have heard of who received survey calls learned new information because of the questions that were asked.
The Defense called an expert witness, Dr. Edelman who created the survey. Dr. Edelman works as a trial consultant and expert. The questions he has been exploring surround whether or not the media coverage has been prejudicial and if the coverage has impacted the potential jury pool.
Dr. Edelman said he used the Wadeer method that he has used hundreds of times to create the survey including in the Parkland shooting case in Parkland, FL, and the Pitsburg signage shooting in Pitsburg, PA.
Dr. Edelman says that if he does recommend a change of venue he would need to conduct a comparison survey in Bonneville and Ada counties to see if that is even possible or if the jury pool is prejudiced due to the media coverage.
Judge Judge said that he does have concerns that the survey violates the gag order because some of the questions used in the survey are not a part of the public record. Judge Judge said that since this is a death penalty case they will be questioning jurors in person, and a lot of the questioning will be individual questioning where the potential juror will be on the record anyway.
Dr. Edlman then goes on to say that almost everyone in the jury pool that they surveyed knew about the case in Latah County.
Judge Judge delaying the change of venue hearing until June 27th as he considers whether removing certain questions from the survey would still allow them to determine bias. He says he will be making a decision next month.
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