Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Murder In Moscow: The Long Legal Road Behind Kohberger’s Latest Filing (Part 4) (8/8/26)

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Murder In Moscow: The Long Legal Road Behind Kohberger’s Latest Filing (Part 4) (8/8/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to pick up where he left
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: off talking about Brian Colberger. In July of twenty twenty five,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Colburger agreed to plead guilty to all five charges. In return,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: prosecutors removed the death penalty from the case. The agreement
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: guaranteed that he would spend the rest of his life
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  Speaker 1: in prison without the possibility of parole. It also spared
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the families and surviving witnesses from a burden of a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: lengthy capital trial. For the state, the police produced convictions
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: without risking an acquittal, mistrial, hung jury, or a reversible
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  Speaker 1: trial error. For Coburger, the agreement eliminated the possibility that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the state would execute him. Each side surrendered something significant
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: in exchange for finality. The government gave up death, while
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Colburger gave up his trial rights and admitted legal responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: That exchange formed the foundation of everything that followed. His
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: current effort to withdraw the pleas directly challenges the legitimacy
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of that exchange. A guilty plea is not simply a
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  Speaker 1: private agreement between attorneys. It's a formal declaration made by
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  Speaker 1: a defendant. An open court under oath. Before accepting it,
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  Speaker 1: a judge must determine that the defendant understands the charges,
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  Speaker 1: possible penalties, and rights being surrendered. The court must also
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  Speaker 1: determine that the plea is voluntary rather than the product
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  Speaker 1: of unlawful coercion. Coberger was questioned about his understanding of
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  Speaker 1: the agreement and his satisfaction with counsel. He acknowledged that
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  Speaker 1: no one was forcing him to plead guilty. He confirmed
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  Speaker 1: that he understood the punishment would include multiple life sentences.
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  Speaker 1: He also accepted that he was relinquishing the right to
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  Speaker 1: require prosecutors to prove their case at trial. Those answers
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  Speaker 1: created a solemn record designed to prevent precisely the kind
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  Speaker 1: of later reversal he's now seeking. Courts attach great weight
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  Speaker 1: to such sworn statements, because plea proceedings would become unstable
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  Speaker 1: if defending dents could casually contradict them. The factual basis
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: for the pleas was equally important. A court cannot accept
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a guilty plea without enough information to establish that the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: admitted conduct satisfies the charge. Defenses prosecutors summarize the evidence
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: they would present at trial. Coburger then entered guilty pleas
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  Speaker 1: to the murders of Gonsalvis, Mogan, Kernodle, and Chapin, along
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  Speaker 1: with the burglary. By doing so, he did not merely
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  Speaker 1: concede that the state possessed enough evidence to convict him.
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  Speaker 1: He accepted criminal responsibility in a proceeding carrying permanent legal consequence.
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  Speaker 1: The absence of a full narrative confession did not render
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  Speaker 1: the pleas meaningless. Defendants are not always required to explain
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  Speaker 1: their motive or recount every movement in detail. What mattered
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  Speaker 1: was whether the pleas were knowing, voluntary, and supported by
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  Speaker 1: an adequate actual foundation. The judge concluded that all of
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  Speaker 1: those conditions had been satisfied. Sentencing brought the victims' families
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  Speaker 1: face to face with the man who had admitted killing
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  Speaker 1: their loved ones. Relatives described lives permanently altered by absence, trauma, anger,
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  Speaker 1: and unanswered questions. Their statements restored the victim's identities. After
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  Speaker 1: years in which legal arguments often centered almost entirely on Coburger,
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  Speaker 1: the court imposed four consecutive life sentences without parole for
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  Speaker 1: the murders. An additional tenure sentence was imposed for burglary
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  Speaker 1: the punishment ensure that Coburger would never return to ordinary society.
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  Speaker 1: It also reflected the distinct loss represented by each victim,
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  Speaker 1: rather than treating the murders as one undifferentiated event. Some
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  Speaker 1: family members confronted Coburger directly, while others focused on preserving
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  Speaker 1: the memories of those that they had lost. The proceeding
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  Speaker 1: could not create true closure, because no sentence could restore
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  Speaker 1: the four lives. It did, however, appear to deliver legal
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  Speaker 1: finality and the uncertainty of a death penalty trial. Coburger's
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: silence about motive remained conspicuous even after he pleaded guilty.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't provide the families with a meaningful explanation for
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  Speaker 1: why the victims had been selected. He didn't publicly describe
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  Speaker 1: how he entered the house or what he intended before arriving.
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  Speaker 1: He did not reveal what happened to the murder weapon.
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  Speaker 1: The plea therefore resolved the legal question of guilt without
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  Speaker 1: resolving the factual mystery surrounding the crime. And I think
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  Speaker 1: that matters because families often seek truth as urgently as punishment.
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  Speaker 1: The agreement guaranteed imprisonment, but it could not compel remorse.
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  Speaker 1: Candor or emotional accountability. Coburger retained control over the information
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  Speaker 1: only he might possess. His current assertion that the confession
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  Speaker 1: was false makes that earlier silence even more troubling. He
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  Speaker 1: is now attempting to unsettle even the limited certainty that
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  Speaker 1: the plea appeared to provide. After sentence, the case entered
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  Speaker 1: a fundamentally different legal posture. Before the please Coburger was
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  Speaker 1: presumed innocent and entitled to demand proof beyond reasonable doubt.
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  Speaker 1: After the pleas and sentences, he stood convicted by his
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  Speaker 1: own admission. The burden therefore shifted dramatically. He can no
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  Speaker 1: longer prevail merely by identifying weaknesses in the prosecution's evidence.
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  Speaker 1: He must establish a legally sufficient reason for setting aside
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  Speaker 1: convictions entered through a formal plea process. Post conviction proceedings
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  Speaker 1: are not designed to provide a disappointed defendant with a
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  Speaker 1: second strategic choice. Instead, they exist to correct constitutional violations
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  Speaker 1: and voluntary pleas in effective representation, newly discovered evidence, or
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  Speaker 1: other profound injustice. Courts also protect the finality of judgment
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  Speaker 1: because witnesses, victims, and the justice system rely on resolved
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  Speaker 1: cases remaining resolved Coberger's petition is consequently being judged under
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  Speaker 1: standards far more than than those governing ordinary pretrial motions.
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  Speaker 1: The distinction between withdrawing a plea before sentencing and withdrawing
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  Speaker 1: one afterward is especially important. Before sentencing, courts may have
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  Speaker 1: greater flexibility to consider whether a defendant has offered affair
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  Speaker 1: and just reason. After sentencing or required showing becomes substantially
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  Speaker 1: more difficult. Coburger must demonstrate a manifest injustice rather than
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  Speaker 1: simple regret or a change of strategy. That standard reflects
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  Speaker 1: the seriousness of undoing a conviction after the court has
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  Speaker 1: imposed punishment. It also prevents defendants from accepting the benefits
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  Speaker 1: of an agreement and later rejecting its burdens. Coburger has
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  Speaker 1: already secured the removal of the death penalty. The state
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  Speaker 1: abandoned its effort to obtain execution in reliance on his
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  Speaker 1: pleas the families relied on the agreement when accepting that
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  Speaker 1: a trial would not occur. His request to reverse the
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  Speaker 1: deal must therefore confront the consequences his reversal would impose
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  Speaker 1: on everyone else. Coberger is now asking the court to
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  Speaker 1: reopen that complete a judgment through a petition for post
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  Speaker 1: conviction relief. He filed the handwritten petition on July twenty seventh,
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, from the Idaho prison where he serve
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  Speaker 1: in his sentence. The petition is not a conventional direct
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  Speaker 1: appeal because Coberger waived his appellate rights as part of
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  Speaker 1: the plea agreement. Instead, he is using a separate process
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  Speaker 1: that allows a convicted person to allege constitutional or other
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  Speaker 1: fundamental defects. He's seeking permission to withdraw his guilty please
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  Speaker 1: and proceed toward a trial. He is also asserting what
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: he describes as his actual innocence. Those assertions stand in
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  Speaker 1: direct conflict with the answers he gave under oath during
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  Speaker 1: the plea hearing. The court has not accepted his new
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: version of events or made any finding that his pleas
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  Speaker 1: were defective. His allegations are presently claims requiring proof rather
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: than established facts. The legal fight over whether the conviction
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  Speaker 1: should remain intact is only beginning. At the center of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the petition is Coburger's claim that his former attorneys convinced
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  Speaker 1: him but falsely confess. He alleges that coercion, misinformation, false promises,
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  Speaker 1: and withheld evidence caused him to accept the plea agreement.
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  Speaker 1: He is presenting himself not as a guilty man or
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  Speaker 1: regretting his sentence, but as an innocent man manipulated by
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  Speaker 1: his own defense team. That accusation is sweeping because it
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  Speaker 1: attacks both the quality of his representation and the truthfulness
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  Speaker 1: of the plea preceding. It also places his current account
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  Speaker 1: against the conduct of experienced capital defenders who spent years
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  Speaker 1: preparing his case. Colberger must do more than repeat that
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  Speaker 1: he was pressured. He must identify who said what, when
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  Speaker 1: the statements were made, why they were false, and how
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  Speaker 1: they overcame his ability to decide freely. His family reported
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  Speaker 1: involvement in many plea discussions may also provide additional witnesses
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  Speaker 1: to what occurred. Those witnesses could support his allegations, contradict them,
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  Speaker 1: or describe discussions far more ordinary than his petition suggests.
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  Speaker 1: The court will need evidence rather than rhetoric, before I
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: can determine whether any unlawful coercion actually occurred. The phrase
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: false confession carries enormous emotional force, but Coburger's circumstances are
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  Speaker 1: not those of a typical interrogation room confession. He was
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  Speaker 1: not an unrepresented suspect questioned for hours immediately after his arrest.
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  Speaker 1: He had a team of experience attorneys, access to discovery,
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  Speaker 1: expert assistants, and more than two years to consider the case.
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  Speaker 1: His pleas resulted from formal negotiations that remove the possibility
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  Speaker 1: of execution. A judge personally questioned him about his understanding
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  Speaker 1: of the voluntariness. Coburger stated that he was pleading guilty
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  Speaker 1: because he was guilty. He denied that the threats or
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  Speaker 1: undisclosed promises were forcing his decision. Those foreign answers now
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  Speaker 1: represent one of the greatest obstacles to his petition. He
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: must explain why the court should believe his present account
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  Speaker 1: rather than the account he gave when the agreement was accepted.
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  Speaker 1: Unless he supplies credible supporting evidence, the conflict may appear
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  Speaker 1: to be a recantation rather than proof of a false confession.
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  Speaker 1: Colberger is also alleging in effective assistance of counsel during
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  Speaker 1: the criminal proceedings. That claim requires substantially more than showing
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  Speaker 1: that his lawyers made decisions he now dislikes. He must
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  Speaker 1: demonstrate that their performance fell below constitutionally acceptable professional standards.
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  Speaker 1: He must then connect that deficient performance to his decision
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  Speaker 1: to plead guilty. In practical terms, he must show reasonable
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  Speaker 1: probability that competent representation would have caused him to reject
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  Speaker 1: the agreement and face trial. Courts generally deferred to strategic
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  Speaker 1: decisions made by defense lawyers after a reasonable investigation. Recommending
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  Speaker 1: a plea that removes the death penalty as not inherently
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  Speaker 1: deficient representation in a capital case with substantial forensic and
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  Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence, preserving a client's life may represent a major
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  Speaker 1: defensive achievement. Kolberger therefore needs specific proof of serious professional
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  Speaker 1: failure rather than broad criticism of the final recommendation. The
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  Speaker 1: performance of his former attorneys is now becoming one of
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  Speaker 1: the central factual questions in his post conviction case. All right, folks,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to wrap up right here, and in the
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  Speaker 1: next episode dealing with the topic, we're going to pick
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  Speaker 1: up where we left off. All the information that goes
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.