US judge holds prosecutor in contempt in Charlie Kirk murder case

Judge says comments to the media by prosecutors about defendant violate rules of what can be said outside of court.The Utah judge presiding over the Charlie Kirk murder case has held prosecutors in contempt of court over comments they made to media organisations about defendant Tyler Robinson.On Friday, Judge Tony Graf said the comments violated his restrictions on what the two sides can say about the case outside of court.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Lawyer for suspect in Kirk killing wants more time to review evidencelist 2 of 3Turning Point USA held its AmericaFest conference. Here’s what happenedlist 3 of 3ABC ‘fighting back’, urging US public to defend stations amid FCC scrutinyend of listBut Graf denied a defence request to take the death penalty off the table as a sanction for the violation.He said the problem could instead be resolved through the screening and questioning process for potential jurors, which is intended to weed out people who could be biased about the case.Robinson, a 23-year-old from southwestern Utah, has not yet entered a plea.He is charged with aggravated murder in the September 10 assassination of Kirk, an ally of United States President Donald Trump who was shot in the neck while addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah-valley-university" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="3139" data-entity-type="location">Utah Valley University.Defence lawyers accused Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard of trying to influence potential jurors by going on a “media tour” to talk about ballistics evidence in the case. Ballard also said prosecutors had enough evidence to show Robinson murdered Kirk.Legal experts had said blocking the death penalty would have been an extreme remedy. Graf said it would have been “grossly disproportionate” to the misconduct.Ballard argued that he had a right to speak to the news media to correct misinformation about a preliminary finding by ballistics experts.Those experts’ initial tests did not match the bullet fragment with a gun that investigators believe was used to kill Kirk. That spurred stories by some publications raising questions about the prosecution’s case.