\n<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old Utah man charged with killing Charlie Kirk made his first in-person court appearance on Thursday as his attorneys push to further limit media access in the high-profile criminal case.<\/p>\n
A Utah judge is weighing the public\u2019s right to know details in the prosecution of Tyler Robinson against his attorneys\u2019 concerns that the swarm of media attention could interfere with his right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n
Robinson\u2019s legal team and the Utah county sheriff\u2019s office have asked Judge Tony Graf to ban cameras in the courtroom.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have charged Robinson with aggravated murder in the 10 September shooting of the far-right activist on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, just a few miles north of the Provo courthouse. They plan to seek the death penalty.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Suspect in Charlie Kirk killing makes first court appearance \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n Robinson arrived in court with restraints on his wrists and ankles and wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks. He smiled at family members sitting in the front row of the courtroom, where his mother teared up and wiped her eyes with a tissue. Robinson\u2019s father and brother sat next to her.<\/p>\n The defendant had previously appeared in court via video or audio feed from jail.<\/p>\n A coalition of national and local news organizations, including the Associated Press, is fighting to preserve media access in the case.<\/p>\n Graf has already made allowances to protect Robinson\u2019s presumption of innocence before a trial, agreeing that the case has drawn \u201cextraordinary\u201d public attention.<\/p>\n Graf held a closed hearing on 24 Octember in which attorneys discussed Robinson\u2019s courtroom attire and security protocols. Under a subsequent ruling by the judge, Robinson is allowed to wear street clothes in court during his pretrial hearings but must be physically restrained due to security concerns. Graf also prohibited media from filming or photographing Robinson\u2019s restraints after his attorneys argued widespread images of him shackled and in jail clothing could prejudice future jurors.<\/p>\n Michael Judd, an attorney for the media coalition, has urged Graf to let the news organizations weigh in on any future requests for closed hearings or other limitations.<\/p>\n The media presence at Utah hearings is already limited, with judges often designating one photographer and one videographer to document a hearing and share their images with other news organizations. Additional journalists can typically attend to listen and take notes, as can members of the public.<\/p>\n Judd wrote in recent filings that an open court \u201csafeguards the integrity of the fact-finding process\u201d while fostering public confidence in judicial proceedings. Criminal cases in the US have long been open to the public, which he argued is proof that trials can be conducted fairly without restricting reporters as they work to keep the public informed.<\/p>\n Kirk\u2019s widow, Erika Kirk, has called for full transparency, saying: \u201cWe deserve to have cameras in there.\u201d Her husband was an ally of Donald Trump who worked to steer young voters toward conservatism.<\/p>\n Robinson\u2019s legal team says his pretrial publicity reaches as far as the White House, with Trump announcing soon after Robinson\u2019s arrest: \u201cWith a high degree of certainty, we have him,\u201d and \u201cI hope he gets the death penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorney Kathy Nester has raised concern that digitally altered versions of Robinson\u2019s initial court photo have spread widely, creating misinformation about the case. Some altered images show Robinson crying or having an outburst in court, which did not happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 22-year-old Utah man charged with killing Charlie Kirk made his first in-person court appearance on Thursday as his attorneys push to further limit media access in the high-profile criminal case. A Utah judge is weighing the public\u2019s right to know details in the prosecution of Tyler Robinson against his attorneys\u2019 concerns that the swarm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2124,9226,7176,160,20550,976,12560,4527],"class_list":{"0":"post-37000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-accused","9":"tag-appearance","10":"tag-charlie","11":"tag-court","12":"tag-inperson","13":"tag-killer","14":"tag-kirk","15":"tag-shooting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}