Judge Keeps Death Penalty an Option in Charlie Kirk Case

A Utah judge upbraided prosecutors in the Charlie Kirk murder case on Friday—but stopped well short of the defense's request to take capital punishment off the table. Judge Tony Graf found prosecutor Christopher Ballard in civil contempt for talking to reporters about the case against defendant Tyler Robinson despite a court order barring pretrial publicity, reports CNN. The "public statements possessed a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing the proceedings by communicating the prosecutor's assessment of the defendant's guilt," said Graf.

Robinson's lawyers had pushed for a steep penalty: removing the death penalty as an option if he's convicted, per USA Today. Graf refused, calling instead for possible extra steps during jury selection to blunt any impact on the jury pool. Robinson faces aggravated murder charges in the September shooting of conservative activist Kirk on a Utah college campus and has not yet entered a plea.