During an unusual June 12 hearing, lawyers for Tyler James Robinson, the man accused of assassinating conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, asked a Utah judge to prevent prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty.
Attorney Richard Novak said sanction would blunt the impact of prosecutors’ allegedly improper public statements, which may have tainted potential jurors.
Novak told Judge Tony Graf Jr.: “I think that the number one remedy in this case, Your Honor, is for this court to preclude the state from seeking the death penalty against Mr. Robinson.”
Novak alleges prosecutors violated court rules when they commented about bullet-fragment tests and the strength of evidence against Robinson late last year, several months after he was accused in Kirk’s slaying….