The defense team for alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson want the judge in the case to take the death penalty off the table.
These lawyers have tried every trick in the book to stall this case for months, even trying to get the prosecutor taken off the case, but nothing has worked. Now it appears that they have been trying to buy time to figure out how to get to this point and potentially save their client’s life.
It is amazing to think that it has been almost a year since Kirk was murdered in such a brutal way.
FOX News reports:
Lawyers for accused Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson are arguing that prosecutors haven’t established a case for the potential death penalty in a new court filing made public Tuesday night.
“The facts and the law require this Court to strike the sole aggravating factor,” defense attorneys Kathy Nester, Michael Burt, Richard Novak and Staci Visser wrote in a 41-page brief.
After a weeklong preliminary hearing in early July, Judge Tony Graf Jr. gave both sides in the case time to file briefs before he makes a decision on whether there is enough probable cause to send the case to trial — which he is expected to announce on Sept. 1.
Robinson, 23, is accused of shooting the 31-year-old Kirk at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, during a Turning Point USA event. Kirk had founded the group to promote conservatism on campuses around the country and was speaking in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 in the courtyard when he was struck and killed by a single bullet.
Robinson’s defense argued in Tuesday’s filing that prosecutors didn’t establish probable cause concerning the aggravating factor — that the shooting created a high probability of death to someone other than Kirk and that Robinson knew of that “high probability.”
Without the aggravator, the potential death penalty would be taken off the table.
This video report does a good job of explaining the strategy these lawyers are trying to use here.
NEW: In a response to the state’s motion for probable cause, Tyler Robinson’s defense argues this shouldn’t be a death penalty case because Robinson didn’t intend to kill anyone other than Charlie:
“The apparent defense strategy here isn’t to prove that Tyler Robinson didn’t… pic.twitter.com/imhhm8bNTY
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) August 12, 2026
We will see if this works. The evidence against Robinson is overwhelming.
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