Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin will be charged with capital murder Tuesday — starting an expected drive to see him executed by firing squad.
The charges against Tyler Robinson, 22, are set to be announced at 2 p.m. ET, three hours before his first virtual court appearance set for 5 p.m., prosecutors said.
Robinson held “leftist ideology” and was “radicalized” online in the last few years, according to prosecutors accusing him of murdering Kirk, 31, while he debated students at Utah Valley University last Wednesday.
President Trump and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox have both signalled clear intentions to see Kirk’s killer face execution.
“I hope he gets the death penalty,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Friday as he first announced that a suspect had been nabbed.
“In Utah, they have the death penalty. And you have a very good governor there. The governor, I’ve gotten to know him, the governor is very intent on the death penalty in this case, and he should be,” he said.
That governor, Cox, first brought up the intention just hours after Kirk was killed last Wednesday.
“To whoever did this, we will find you. We will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law,” he said — adding, “I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty in the state of Utah.”
The Beehive State is one of 27 states that still allow the death penalty, and one of just five that allow execution by firing squad if lethal injection is not available.
Utah last executed a death row inmate by firing squad in June 2010, when the method was used on convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner.
In Gardner’s case, five law enforcement volunteers took up positions behind a wall with five slots, while each aimed their rifle at a white paper target on Gardner’s chest over his heart.
Four of the five rounds were live, but one was a dummy, so none of the executioners knew who had fired the fatal shot, TMZ reported, citing a journalist who witnessed the events at Utah State Prison.
Despite that, capital punishment cases are rare in Utah, where only two executions have been carried out in the past 20 years, and inmates spend an average of 34 years on death row.
The death penalty is only allowed under Utah law in cases of “aggravated murder” or murders that knowingly “created a great risk of death” to another person besides the victim or defendant.
If Robinson is charged with aggravated murder, state prosecutors have just 60 days to file a specific notice of intent to notify the court and defense attorneys that they plan to try the case as a capital felony.
This would trigger a lengthy legal process, including a two-part trial to determine both Robinson’s guilt and whether he should receive the death penalty.
Otherwise, the case will be tried under charges of a “noncapitalist first-degree penalty,” for which the maximum sentence is life in prison without parole.
With Post wires
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