A Utah judge has held prosecutors in contempt of court for comments they made to media organizations about the Charlie Kirk murder case. Judge Tony Graf ruled Friday that the statements violated his restrictions on out-of-court comments by both sides.

However, Graf denied a defense request to remove the death penalty as a sanction for the violation, saying the issue could be addressed through juror screening and questioning to weed out biased individuals.

Tyler Robinson, 23, from southwestern Utah, is charged with aggravated murder in the September 10 assassination of Kirk, an ally of President Donald Trump, who was shot in the neck while addressing a crowd at Utah Valley University. Robinson has not yet entered a plea.

Defense lawyers accused Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard of attempting to influence potential jurors by going on a “media tour” to discuss ballistics evidence. Ballard also stated that prosecutors had enough evidence to show Robinson murdered Kirk.

Judge Graf said Ballard's comments about the bullet did not violate court rules, but his additional statement that prosecutors had “ample evidence to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that Tyler Robinson committed this murder” posed a “substantial likelihood” of prejudicing the case.

Initial ballistics tests did not match the bullet fragment to the suspected murder weapon, leading to media reports questioning the prosecution's case and fueling unsubstantiated conspiracy theories of a second shooter or staged death.

Graf emphasized that the contempt ruling was not about the charges against Robinson but solely about enforcing a narrowly tailored publicity order governing attorney conduct.

Source: www.aljazeera.com