- Tyler Robinson, charged with killing Charlie Kirk, appears in court on Thursday.
- Robinson's defense argues media coverage may bias jurors; seeks restrictions.
- Media strongly opposes such restrictions, citing past fair trials despite high-profile cases.
PROVO — Tyler Robinson, the southern Utah man charged with killing Charlie Kirk, is making his first public appearance in court on Thursday.
Robinson, who is charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense, and faces a potential death sentence if convicted, appeared in 4th District Judge Tony Graf's courtroom for a hearing regarding media access to his case.
Robinson, 22, of Washington, Washington County, is accused of shooting and killing Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 while Kirk was at Utah Valley University. Kirk, 31 — a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA — was sitting under a tent of an outdoor amphitheater-courtyard area at UVU, speaking in front of approximately 3,000 people, when he was shot in the neck by a gunman on the roof of the nearby Losee Center building.
On Thursday, Robinson entered the courtroom wearing a dress shirt, slacks and a tie, and his hands were shackled, as he sat down next to his defense attorneys. Robinson's father, mother and brother are also in attendance for the hearing.
Graf says three issues will be discussed during Thursday's hearing
- Whether audio from the Oct. 14 hearing and subsequent transcripts of the hearing created 10 days later should be released to the public.
- A motion to amend the "gag order" issued for the case intended to limit case publicity.
- Motions by media interveners to be notified of hearings and documents that may be classified as closed or private.
Graf closed the first part of the hearing Thursday and cleared the courtroom in order to discuss what portions of the October hearing or transcripts should be released. Robinson was in attendance at that October hearing.
Robinson's defense team contends that the high publicity surrounding the case could potentially prejudice potential jurors and has argued for restrictions on media coverage. As part of Graf's decorum order for media coverage, Robinson cannot be photographed in shackles and can only be filmed or photographed while he is seated with his attorneys. The media are also prohibited from recording or photographing Robinson's family inside the courtroom.
Today's court hearing, which began at noon, can be streamed here once the judge reopens the proceedings to the public:
In their motion opposing any efforts to close or restrict Robinson's hearings, attorneys for a team of media organizations — which includes KSL.com, KSL-TV and the Deseret News — argue: "This is not the first high-profile criminal trial in Utah, nor will it be the last. Time and again, our courts have managed the delicate constitutional balance between the defendant's right to a fair trial and the public's right to observe the proceedings of the judicial process without sacrificing either. This case is no different."
The media expects there will be a series of motions in the future seeking to close court proceedings and associated records, "based solely on generalized assertions that pretrial publicity will make it impossible for the defendant to receive a fair trial. These kinds of blanket claims are not new. They arise in nearly every high-profile criminal prosecution, often at alarmingly early stages of the case, seeking to support broad prophylactic sealing orders with speculative predictions about what the jury pool might see in the news and how that might make it impossible to do, months or years from now, what courts do every day—seat a fair and impartial jury."
First Amendment attorneys have argued that there has been no case in Utah where it was found that a defendant did not receive a fair trial because of pretrial publicity, even though there have been many high-profile criminal cases in Utah.
This story will be updated.
