Ahead of Tyler Robinson’s next court hearing on Feb. 3, Robinson and his defense team filed a request to ban video footage of conservative activist Charlie Kirk being shot and killed at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Robinson was charged with seven counts, including aggravated murder, less than a week after Kirk’s murder, and officials are actively pursuing capital punishment.
On Tuesday, his attorneys cited Rules 401 and 402 of the Utah Rules of Evidence as well as the argument that presenting the video — which is admitted to the court by the State as Exhibit 4.1 — would hinder Robinson’s constitutional right to a fair trial.
Rule 401 states that evidence is only relevant if “it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence; and the fact is of consequence in determining the action." Rule 402 states that “irrelevant evidence is not admissible.”
The defense also cited Rule 403 as potentially being violated if the video is presented in open court, “or if this Court intends to provide the public with access to this exhibit before it is admitted into evidence at trial, if it ever is,” the filing obtained by Deseret News, said.
“Mr. Robinson’s objection under Rule 403 is inextricably intertwined with and therefore also based upon his right to a fair trial under the Utah and United States Constitutions,” the filing continued.
If the video is permitted, which they say depicts “a close-up color video, with audio, of the shooting of Mr. Kirk,” it is “inadmissible” and “should remain sealed until it is admitted into evidence, if it is, at trial.”
Why is evidence being shown next hearing?
The “Prove Me Wrong” tour that took place at UVU lasted only minutes before about 3,000 people witnessed Kirk’s shocking assassination.
Last hearing, Robinson’s attorneys argued that the Utah County Attorney’s Office should be dismissed from prosecuting the case and that it be moved to a different district because one of the defense attorneys had a child who was at the UVU event and witnessed Kirk being shot.
Fourth District Judge Tony Graf said that the defense didn’t offer enough evidence to dismiss the prosecution, but he granted an evidentiary hearing so that they could try to persuade him otherwise. That hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said during the last hearing that the conflict of interest allegation is “an ambush and another stalling tactic to delay these proceedings,” the Deseret News previously reported. They also disputed the allegation, labeling it “a tactic” to find a “more lenient and favorable prosecuting authority.”
In their Tuesday filing, Robinson’s defense team further described their frustration with the national attention and media coverage the case has received, and how that has impeded Robinson’s right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
“As the highly biased traditional local and national media and nouveau international social media coverage of this case demonstrates, every in-court statement by attorneys representing the state, whether under oath or not, every statement by counsel for Mr. Robinson, and every observation and ruling by this court are under a microscope and subject to micro-surgery by journalists, bloggers, media ‘experts,’ and others,” the filing said.
The objection further stated, “To make matters worse, those media entities which now purport to refer to themselves as ‘litigants’ in this prosecution, in complete disregard of this court’s admonition to the contrary, seek to ensure that every single pleading filed in and statement to this court is available for widespread public dissemination long before a neutral, untainted and reliably unbiased jury is ever impaneled, undoubtedly undermining the ability of this court and the two litigants to do so.”
Multiple witnesses are expected to testify at the next hearing, as Graf will be trying to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to disqualify the prosecution from the case.
