On Thursday night, Gov. Spencer Cox said Utah officials had been “working with our attorneys getting everything that we need … so that we can pursue the death penalty” for Charlie Kirk’s killer.
“That will happen here in the state of Utah,” Cox told reporters.
But Friday morning, with suspect Tyler Robinson now in custody, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said it’s not yet clear whether prosecutors will pursue the death penalty against him.
“I can say that it’s obviously part of Utah law,” Brown said in an interview. “It is an option here, but it’s not something that I can talk about in terms of whether that will play a role in this case.”
Brown said he expects charges will be filed in the next 48 to 72 hours. Utah law requires a specific “aggravating” factor in death penalty cases, and not all murders qualify under state code.
Whether the death penalty is pursued against any defendant, Brown added, “has a lot to do with the discretion of the prosecutor,” as well as the specific facts and allegations in a case.
“Those will be questions that I believe will be answered very soon, but I can’t talk about them just yet,” Brown said. “In this situation, with this individual we have in custody, I just can’t comment on specifics, but this will be something that we will be discussing in much greater detail.”
Later Friday, Brown followed up to say that the death penalty was “definitely still on the table,” and that he and the governor were aligned on the issue.
“As a member of the prosecution team here, I’m limited in what I can say publicly about it, because we’re still collecting facts,” he said. “I’m not saying it isn’t an option. I’m not saying it isn’t something that can’t be looked at.”
A spokesperson for Cox did not immediately respond to repeated requests for comment Friday. The governor’s comments regarding the death penalty Thursday evening came prior to the arrest of Robinson, a 22-year-old from the St. George area now considered a suspect in the case.
Who decides?
The ultimate decision about whether to pursue the death penalty, Brown said, is in the hands of the prosecutors who will file charges.
In the interview Friday morning, Brown said Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray and his office will lead the prosecution of Robinson “from a Utah standpoint,” and that the A.G.’s office is coordinating with local, state and federal officials.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray, shown in 2022 when he was running for the office. He and his team will lead the Utah prosecution of Tyler Robinson, suspected of fatally shooting conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem.
The charges that are initially filed, he noted, could be amended as more facts come to light. The answer to whether prosecutors will pursue the death penalty “would likely be part of that” initial filing, Brown said.
“And if not, at some point in the future,” he added. “But a lot of that is fact-specific, so since we don’t have all the facts, then we’ll know as we get facts in.”
An aggravated murder charge carries a potential death penalty. Under Utah law, the aggravating factors that elevate a murder charge to an aggravated murder charge include, among other things: having multiple victims, targeting a police officer or public official, committing the crime in addition to another serious felony like kidnapping, or being “especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, or exceptionally depraved.”
In the probable cause statement included in Robinson’s jail booking documents, State Bureau of Investigation Officer Brian Davis wrote, “I believe there is probable cause that Tyler Robinson committed the crimes of aggravated murder by shooting Charlie Kirk in a circumstance that put many around him at grave risk of death.”
Utah defense attorney Mark Moffat, who is not working on the Robinson case, said in an interview Friday that the cited justification raised concerns for him. He said he worries that the “multiple victims” factor not been defined well enough.
“When you have undefined aggravating factors, their interpretation can be left to the sole discretion of prosecutors,” he said. “And that causes defense lawyers concern.”
(File photo, Dominic Valente | Daily Herald) Attorney Mark Moffat speaks to the media in 2017, after a Utah County jury found his client not guilty in a murder trial.
Moffat also said Friday that he was concerned that the governor had invoked the death penalty twice — once on Wednesday soon after the shooting, and again Thursday evening — when the facts of the case were not yet clear.
“When a public official, the governor of our state, leads out with something like that under circumstances where very little is known, then it puts pressure on local officials, especially if they’re members of the same party, to follow suit,” he said.
“It creates that kind of public pressure and public expectation that the death penalty is going to be pursued and and that’s a concern.”
Moffat called seeking the death penalty “a momentous decision” and commended Brown for his caution in talking about that potential.
State and federal charges possible
Brown said there may also be both state and federal charges filed in the case.
“There’s things we can do as a state, from a prosecution standpoint, that the feds can’t do, and then vice versa,” Brown said. “There are things and charges they can bring that we can’t. So we’re most powerful when we work together.”
Asked what those state and federal charges might include, Brown said he couldn’t discuss specifics. But he said he’s been working closely with the U.S. Department of Justice, “who obviously care about this and are working with us.”
Robinson, Brown noted, has only been in custody for “a very short period of time.”
“The reality is we don’t have all the information yet,” he said.
In coming days, Brown said, law enforcement officials will continue gathering information from witnesses and collecting other evidence, including cellphone records.
Moffat said he agrees that it’s possible that both state and federal officials could file homicide charges in this case. Moffat also said he could see federal officials pointing to the gun and ammunition used in the shooting as having been obtained through “interstate commerce,” which could give federal officials jurisdiction.
“As separate sovereigns, each has the ability to pursue criminal charges pursuant to their criminal code,” he said.
Cox said at a Friday morning news conference that he had hoped that the suspect would not be a Utahn.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox makes remarks during a news conference announcing an arrest of a suspect in the Wednesday shooting death of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025.
Cox’s comments about the death penalty in Utah came less than a week after the scheduled — and later delayed — execution by firing squad of Ralph Menzies, who kidnapped and killed a young mother, Maurine Hunsaker, in 1986.
“My office is currently working on preparing for another competency hearing in that case,” Brown said Friday. “That’s something that we’re we are currently working on. Whether those factors have application here [in the Kirk case], I just can’t say.”