OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
1:59 PM – Thursday, August 13, 2026
In a major legal filing in Fourth District Court, attorneys representing the accused killer of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, have asked Judge Tony Graf Jr. to remove the death penalty from consideration in the capital murder case stemming from the September 2025 fatal shooting.
The 23-year-old defendant faces charges of aggravated murder, witness tampering and other offenses following the fatal shooting at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was horrifically murdered in front of a crowd of thousands.
Capital punishment in Utah requires prosecutors to prove specific statutory aggravating factors, and the defense contends that the state’s evidence presented during a week-long preliminary hearing falls far short of that evidentiary threshold.
The central legal dispute now hinges on whether the assailant knowingly endangered surrounding spectators during the rooftop attack. Prosecutors have highlighted that thousands of attendees were within a potential “zone of danger,” making the offense an aggravated murder eligible for the death penalty.
However, in a 41-page brief, defense attorneys challenged that claim, arguing that trajectory evidence “demonstrates the single bullet traveled above the crowd and hit only the intended target” without threatening anyone else. Without proof that others were placed at substantial risk of death, the defense argues, the charge cannot legally be classified as a capital offense under Utah law.
This motion represents the defense’s latest effort to strip capital punishment from the proceedings. In June, Robinson’s defense team requested that Judge Graf bar the death penalty as a sanction after accusing prosecutors of violating pretrial publicity orders by discussing ballistics evidence with media outlets.
While Judge Graf ultimately held a Utah County prosecutor in civil contempt for making public comments about the case’s strength, he declined to remove the death penalty as a remedy, keeping capital punishment on the table at that time.
The current defense challenge follows the conclusion of July’s preliminary hearing, during which state prosecutors presented DNA evidence linking Robinson to the suspected murder weapon alongside electronic communications and statements purportedly made to his gender dysphoric lover and roommate at the time, Lance Twiggs.
Defense lawyers have also disputed the “reliability of the forensic evidence” and argued that the state’s political motive theories lack evidentiary backing beyond isolated remarks.
Judge Graf is expected to review the defense’s formal reply brief and the state’s arguments before deciding whether there is sufficient probable cause to bind Robinson over for trial on capital aggravated murder charges.
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