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Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting prominent US conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus, pleaded not guilty at a hearing on Tuesday to a murder charge that a judge ruled could carry the death penalty.
Shelagh Fogarty is joined by Republican Overseas' Greg Swenson to react to the plea.
During the hearing, prosecutors laid out what they called "overwhelming" evidence that Robinson, 23, fired the single round that killed Kirk, 31, as he held one of the campus debates that had helped propel him to national prominence.
Defence lawyers argued the shooting did not meet the standard for a death penalty charge. Now it will be up to a jury to decide.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
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0:00
The killer of Charlie Kirk, or the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, I should say
0:04
has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The widow of Charlie Kirk and the family of the alleged killer as well are in the court today
0:18
Tyler Robinson is the name and both women were visibly emotional as the judge ruled the case can now move to trial
0:25
family members of both Kirk and Robinson shifted between leaning over, looking up, crying and wiping away tears
0:32
as you can imagine, incredibly traumatic events. You remember them, we talked about them at length at the time, didn't we
0:38
The case against him, he's accused of fatally shooting the conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah
0:45
is going to move to trial, citing sufficient probable cause, i.e. there's a belief that the prosecution is possible
0:52
The prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty if he is convicted of the crime
0:59
The judge, Tony Graff, ruled that Tyler Robinson will stand trial on all counts, including aggravated murder and felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury
1:10
He was arraigned. That's Robinson. He was arraigned and his attorney entered not guilty pleas on his behalf
1:17
Does Mr. Robinson wish to enter into pleas today? Yes, Your Honor. We'll proceed with the arraignment
1:23
All right. And what please does he wish to enter into the record
1:30
At this point, we would waive reading of the indictment. I'm sorry
1:35
Waive reading of the information and interpleased if not guilty on Mr. Robinson's behalf to all counts
1:42
All right. The court finds that that is knowingly and voluntarily made and that addresses that issue
1:52
The charges include count one, aggravated murder, a capital offense, together with the state's victim targeting notice
2:00
Count two, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony
2:07
Counts three and four, obstruction of justice, second-degree felonies. counts five and six tampering with a witness third-degree felonies
2:15
and count seven violent offense committed in the presence of a child
2:20
a class b misdemeanor which the state alleges is reclassified as a class a
2:26
misdemeanor under 76-3-203.14 and i'm going to omit reading the citations just in the interest of time i will be
2:38
filing this within 24 hours. So that will be there. So what is it? Is it political expression
2:45
Which political expression? It is true that Mr. Kirk spoke hatefully of
2:57
certain groups of people. He spoke hatefully of people who don't have traditional
3:05
traditional, norm-conforming gender identities. He spoke hatefully of people who are not strictly heterosexual
3:14
Charlie Kirk's family welcomed the ruling as an important step in the pursuit of justice
3:20
Erica Kirk, alongside her late husband's parents, were there to witness events in the courtroom
3:25
And here's what we heard from the prosecutor who will be seeking the death penalty, Ryan McBride, yesterday
3:30
On September 10th, 2025, the defendant, Tyler James Robinson, shot and killed Charlie Kirk because he disagreed with him
3:42
And he did it by firing a high rifle into a group of thousands who surrounded Charlie Kirk literally on all sides And he like any rational person knew that that would create a great risk of death
3:58
to all those around Charlie Kirk. It's almost a year since this crime was committed
4:03
I mean, it still stuns me when I think about it. I can't bear to look at the image anymore, but it was just so shocking, wasn't it
4:12
It really was. I think, you know, so many of us remember where we were when we heard about it and, you know, the first people we talked to
4:21
And, yeah, it was an absolute shock. And you're right, it's coming up almost to the day on, you know, a year from a year ago
4:30
What it proved, I suppose, or amongst many things, but what it showed, what it revealed, not just the crime itself
4:37
but people's responses to it was really how divided a world we now live in
4:43
and how divided communities both online and off we now live in in many senses
4:47
in that people seem to, even if they were prepared to express horror at the manner in which Charlie Kirk died
4:53
they seem to add a rider that, well, I didn't agree with his opinions
4:58
but it's still terrible. And we've seen that in other cases as well
5:02
I think it's a, I think it's a, I find a concerning development in humanity
5:09
Yeah, yeah, it really is. And a lot of politicians, especially on the left in the US, they say, oh, that was a horrible
5:17
event, but, you know, or yes, that attack on a synagogue is horrible, but, you know
5:23
and then they have some caveat about the fact that, you know, the IDF is misbehaving
5:29
So maybe these anti-Semitic events are okay. And then, of course, you had, you know, not long before Charlie Kirk's assassination, you had the assassination of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in New York on 54th Street
5:43
And that was, you know, you saw some online commentary like, you know, the guy had it coming
5:49
I mean, it's just really outrageous. And hero worshipping the killer. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, there's young punks with T-shirts with Luigi, I think it's Mangione is the young man's name, who committed a crime. And yeah, so it's really unsettling. And I would hope that politicians can just condemn really, really bad, evil behavior on the merits and not make an excuse for it
6:15
the the death penalty is in the mix here potentially yeah is that something your group
6:21
will be focusing on particularly or I mean I'm conscious that with with trials in America
6:28
and the fact that I'm over here but with trials in America and the coverage of them is it's
6:32
there's so much more freedoms to discuss things and to even campaign for particular outcomes
6:37
is that something your group will be looking at the death penalty element of this I think there's
6:41
a real curiosity about it. And, you know, the reality is it doesn't happen very often. You know
6:47
capital punishment is a sensitive topic. I think it pretty much, I wouldn't argue at all that all
6:53
Republicans are for capital punishment. That's definitely not the case. But I think it does
6:57
skew on party lines. You have more against on the, you know, with Democrats and you have more
7:02
for it with Republicans. But, you know, many of us Catholics have have some real issues with it
7:08
And, you know, I think it's a difficult one, but it's just the reality is it doesn't happen very often
7:13
I mean, probably the most famous one in the last generation was the Oklahoma City bombing where the guy who did that, I forget his name, thankfully
7:24
Timothy something. Timothy something. You're right. You're right. And, you know, I tried to do that in my head
7:27
Our Google brains are giving up, Greg, I'm afraid. What an evil person. So it really hard It hard to be against capital punishment when you see someone like him and what he did blowing up a nursery school or a preschool in a federal building Timothy McVeigh I am told Thank you Yeah there you go Nice job producer Nice job producer
7:48
Roxanna. But yeah, so, you know, but look, it's one of those things where you, you know, someone
7:54
like I can say, oh, I'm against capital punishment. But then if someone killed my child, I'd club them like a baby seal, you know, and I think
8:05
that's, it's, it's, it's a real personal issue. And I think when you see someone kill a guy like
8:12
Charlie Kirk, who was just a really loving, you know, like super nice guy that everybody
8:18
not everybody loved, but, but, um, you know, but the people that disliked him, disliked him for
8:23
the wrong reasons. You know, when he spoke not long before his death, he spoke at Oxford and
8:28
Cambridge and, you know, he's just was really impressive. And, and it's, it's so you might be
8:34
against capital punishment philosophically, but then when it gets to be personal
8:38
you say, yeah, I hope they killed a guy. I mean, that doesn't sound very nice to me
8:43
I understand what you're saying. And that's the big moral test, I suppose, isn't it, for every individual
8:47
Can I ask you as well, just to go back prior to this dreadful killing
8:53
how would you measure Charlie Kirk's contribution to Republican political success in the modern era
9:00
in the last decade, say? It's enormous. And I would have said that before his death
9:06
I mean, the difference between Charlie, I mean, he had so many great attributes
9:10
But one of the particularly unique ones was his appeal to younger voters
9:15
And just like in the UK, you know, the natural assumption is that young people vote left and, you know, boring middle aged people like me vote right
9:23
And so he challenged that and he did an unbelievable job. And in a practical way, he really swayed young voters in the last election
9:36
And, you know, he definitely had an influence in 2016 and 2020, but his influence in 2024 really created a wave of young people that turned out to be like a trend
9:46
It turned out to be kind of the new popular thing was to be a conservative at age 21, which we don't really hear that very often
9:54
Well, he opened a door that people perhaps who wouldn't have previously felt comfortable walking through did walk through in a political sense, I mean
10:03
Yeah. You know, we've seen, particularly in the States, but around the world on social media as well, we've seen how the trial of Lindsay Clancy is gripping so many people
10:13
I mean, I get the feat. I mean, she was a private citizen until that trial, until she killed her kids
10:20
Charlie Kirk was already a global figure by the time he was called. this is going to be some trial, isn't it, in terms of media attention, in terms of what people read
10:29
into the arguments, the evidence and ultimately the verdict? Yeah, I think this could be an O.J
10:35
Simpson level focus, maybe. I mean, it's hard to top that one. I remember it well. But I think that
10:41
in this case, because of the political fractions that we have, the political division that we have
10:49
It might get a lot of focus just for that, you know, the right-left divide and opinions on Charlie
10:57
But I think the difference between this and OJ and other famous trials is the evidence is really overwhelming
11:05
Like I can't imagine there's going to be some great mystery as to whether, you know, what the verdicts are
11:11
I think the only mystery might be whether he gets the death penalty or not
11:16
And that's probably the biggest curiosity that people will have. Yeah, I think you're right about the level of attention that will be on it
11:23
And I must say, one of the things I think is so alarming about this case
11:28
and that whatever you think of Charlie Kirk whatever you think of Republicans whatever you think of any political person Yeah it should chill us all to the bone that somebody solution to disagreeing
11:40
with someone is to shoot them in the neck. Yeah, it's unbelievable, because it's, it's exactly what
11:46
Charlie campaigned against, you know, his whole philosophy, you know, was, was, hey, let's have
11:52
the discussion and let's do it in a nice, loving way. I mean, he, he was sharp, and he was able to
11:58
speak, you know, on his feet and sort of get into the debates. He was a good debater. But he also
12:04
led with love. And like, you know, when he talked about sensitive topics like transgender issues
12:09
the first thing he said was, you know, you should love you and you should love your own
12:13
you know, body the way it is. Don't change it. You know, God loves you and I love you. I mean
12:18
you don't get that from a lot of sort of media or social media, you know, provocateurs
12:25
I know why you say what you said there, because there's plenty of evidence for it. But he also said, didn't he, more guns, more guns. And that was very controversial. Towards the end of his life, he made that comment about more guns, please. That was very controversial, wasn't it? Because there are plenty of people in America, maybe even people who would support him on other things, who want the opposite of that in the country
12:47
Yeah, I think, and again, there's another sort of right-left divide. I think, you know, Republicans and conservatives, generally speaking, are very, very much pro-Second Amendment and defend that right
13:00
And, you know, I think Charlie would argue that people kill people, guns don't kill people. 99.9% of gun owners never commit a crime. Most gun violence is domestic gun violence or gang violence, and it's usually done with handguns
13:15
So, you know, and even in the UK, you know, when they banned gun ownership in 1997, you know, homicide rates went up 50%
13:24
So I think there's a lot of drama in that Second Amendment debate
13:28
But if you look at the data, it's pretty important to be sensible and have some context
13:35
And, you know, the crime rates actually went up when we banned guns here in the UK
13:40
I understand he, Charlie Kirk, supported the death penalty. Yeah, and I think, again, I'm not sure where Erica, his widow, is on this
13:50
She seems to be taking a more sort of a forgiving, sort of religious God loves you tone
13:57
But yeah, Charlie was a traditional Christian and believed in the eye for an eye kind of thing
14:05
And that's definitely, I wouldn't say it's baked into American culture like gun ownership is
14:10
But it's in it more than powerful. But it's in it, yeah. And I think, you know, again, as I said at the beginning of the segment, it's very difficult to actually get one of those cases, you know, to the end
14:21
You know, they go on for 20 years. I'm from Illinois where a Republican governor, ironically, actually put a stop to capital punishment because we found out there were mistakes being made
14:33
I mean, it's happening less now because of DNA technology. You'd want to be very certain
14:37
But I remember 25 years ago, there were guys that were going to the electric chair, and it turns out they didn't commit the crime
14:46
I mean, they might not have been the most loving, happy people, but it doesn't mean they should be executed
14:52
So I think it's something that the process is very long and difficult, and Timothy McVeigh was an easy one
15:01
But I think there's a lot of arguments to be made that it's actually more expensive to give someone the death penalty because it takes 20 years of appeal and all the other drama where, you know, maybe just life without parole is probably a better, a more, you know, a more challenging punishment, frankly
15:21
Thank you, Greg. Very good to talk to you. Greg Swenson, chairman of Republicans Overseas UK
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