Erika Kirk, the widow of the assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, asked Utah attorneys to guarantee her right to a speedy trial.
The request, made Friday, came the same day 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who is accused of the killing of Charlie Kirk, made an in-person, public court appearance, as his defense asked 4th District Judge Tony Graf to disqualify the prosecution over an alleged conflict of interest.
Robinson was charged with aggravated murder, along with five other felonies and a misdemeanor, less than a week after Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10, during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Robinson’s defense asks for the prosecution to be disqualified
In the document filed on Friday, Erika Kirk’s lawyer wrote, “Nobody believed in the importance of the United States Constitution more than Charlie Kirk. And although the United States Constitution guarantees criminal defendants many rights, it does not guarantee them the right to cause undue delay in the criminal justice process.”
On Friday, Robinson’s defense team asked Graf that the prosecution be moved under the jurisdiction of a different county. They claimed that a member of the prosecution has a conflict of interest, which should disqualify the team.
The defense alleged that a prosecutor’s daughter stood 85 feet from Kirk when he was shot. The daughter, who is a student at UVU, left her backpack and fled the event with the other 3,000 people in attendance.
Graf ruled there was not sufficient evidence to warrant the move, so an evidentiary hearing commenced, which is scheduled to resume on Feb. 3.
Criminal defendants do not have the right ‘to cause undue delay’
Erika Kirk’s lawyer referenced a section of Utah Code that guarantees the victim of a crime the right to “speedy disposition of the charges free from unwarranted delay.”
The court designated Erika Kirk as victim representative in early December in Robinson’s capital murder trial.
Although Kirk was shot and killed more than four months ago, the case against Robinson has not yet left the procedural stage. A preliminary hearing has been tentatively scheduled for May 18 to 21.
Criminal defense lawyer Donna Rotunno told Fox News on Tuesday that Erika Kirk’s filing “was strategically very smart, because they’re saying, ‘Look. Mrs. Kirk has rights too, and her rights are that this case be adjudicated swiftly.’”
The filing from Erika Kirk’s lawyer concluded, “This Court is tasked with the critically important function of ensuring the Defendant has a fair trial, but this Court must also do so while balancing Mrs. Kirk’s right to a speedy trial and therefore this Notice invokes Mrs. Kirk’s rights under applicable Utah Code.”