Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson should he be convicted.
The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk wants a judge to ban cameras from the courtroom and says live broadcasts of the prosecution are violating his right to a fair trial. Tyler Robinson was back in state court in Utah on Friday as his lawyers asked to delay his May preliminary hearing and pressed their claims that biased coverage is tainting potential jurors in his aggravated murder case.
Among numerous examples cited was a New York Post story they say suggested Robinson confessed to Mr Kirk’s killing during a courtroom conversation on December 11, in his first appearance after being charged. The conversation with his lawyers was inaudible, but the story cited a “lip reading analysis” to support its claim that Robinson said: “I think about the shooting daily.”
“The predominant purpose being served by the live stream coverage has not been the educational reporting of the court proceedings, but rather advertising profit, sensationalism, political agendas, and, most prominently, the vilification of Mr Robinson,” his lawyers wrote in their request to bar cameras. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Robinson should he be convicted in the September 10 shooting of the conservative activist, who was addressing a crowd of thousands on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem.
Robinson, who turned 23 on Thursday, has not yet entered a plea. A trial date has not been set. Media organisations, prosecutors and Mr Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, want the court to allow cameras.
They argue the best way to guard against the misinformation and conspiracy theories that concern Robinson’s defence team is to make the process transparent. Yet livestreaming by media outlets already has tested the patience of Judge Tony Graf.
During the December hearing, Judge Graf temporarily stopped the livestream after it showed the defendant’s shackles in violation of a courtroom decorum order. A January hearing was interrupted when Robinson’s lawyers said close-up shots of Robinson being livestreamed by a local television station could again lead to claims based on lip reading.
That, too, was a violation of Judge Graf’s decorum order. The judge ordered the camera operator not to film Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.
In recent hearings and again on Friday, pool cameras for the media were stationed at the rear of the courtroom, behind Robinson. The judge also made camera operators come before him to acknowledge they understand the rules.
Mike Judd, a lawyer for a coalition of media organisations including The Associated Press fighting to preserve access, said the judge has so far focused on whether his rules inside the courtroom are being followed, not what the media is saying outside court.
“The court can do all of that in order to try to control what gets fed into that media ecosystem,” Mr Judd said. “You reduce the likelihood of somebody publishing things that you think may be of potentially biasing concern later on.”
The preliminary hearing scheduled for May is for prosecutors to show they have enough evidence to proceed to trial. Authorities have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing, two unfired cartridges and a towel used to wrap the rifle.
But the defence argued on Friday it cannot move forward with the hearing until law enforcement agencies turn over more details about their DNA analysis of evidence.
Prosecutors responded that they have sufficient proof beyond DNA to tie Robinson to Mr Kirk’s killing. That includes surveillance video of Robinson near the university from the morning of the shooting wearing the same clothes as when he turned himself in.
Robinson left a handwritten note for his partner confessing to the crime before it happened, and also confessed to friends on the chatroom platform Discord, prosecutors said.
Rescheduling the preliminary hearing could delay the proceedings six months, Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride said.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” he added.
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