The man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk can still face the death penalty if convicted, after a Utah judge ruled Friday that prosecutorial misconduct did not warrant removing capital punishment from the case.
Utah County Judge Tony Graf Jr. found that Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard was in contempt of a previous court order because of public statements he made about the strength of the evidence against defendant Tyler Robinson.
However, Graf concluded Ballard did not violate the order when he publicly disputed what prosecutors viewed as a misleading characterization of ballistic evidence contained in a defense court filing.
Because of that distinction, the judge rejected Robinson’s request to strike the death penalty as a sanction against the prosecution.
“The court finds that striking the death penalty is grossly disproportionate to the misconduct and legally unavailable in this civil contempt framework,” Graf said from the bench.
Instead of removing the possibility of capital punishment, Graf said the court will expand the jury selection process to ensure Robinson receives a fair and impartial trial.
This story is developing…
BREAKING: A Utah judge just found one of the county prosecutors in the Tyler Robinson case in contempt for violating the court's pre-trial publicity order.
This comes as the judge also denies Robinson's request to remove the death penalty from the Charlie Kirk murder case.… pic.twitter.com/xYMQZ5hx92
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 26, 2026
