Face of the Day

Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting prominent US conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus last year, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge that a judge ruled could carry the death penalty.

Robinson’s plea and the ruling by Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf came after prosecutors laid out what they called overwhelming evidence that a capital trial of Robinson, 23, was warranted for the murder of one of the US political right’s most prominent figures. Defence lawyers had argued the shooting did not meet the standard for a death penalty charge.

Utah County attorneys accused the former apprentice electrician of firing the single shot that killed Kirk, 31, as he held one of his trademark campus debates that helped propel him to national prominence.

Graf ruled that Robinson should face trial on all seven charges against him, among them aggravated murder for endangering the lives of others at the event. That count carries the death penalty in Utah.

RNZ