Bryan Kohberger is in court to make his controversial plea deal legal in the eyes of the law … and TMZ is streaming live.

Kohberger accepted a deal that allows him to avoid the death penalty … but a judge still has to approve the agreement … and that’s what’s happening today in an Idaho courthouse.

As we reported … the deal calls for Kohberger to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the brutal stabbing deaths of four Idaho college students … and he will receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The families of the four victims — Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves — are split on the plea deal … Ethan and Madison’s fathers support it, but the Goncalves and Kernodle families strongly oppose it.

Some of the families are in the courtroom right now … and prosecutors have not said why they agreed to a deal, rather than taking the case to trial next month.