The man who is accused of killing Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, will appear in court for the first time in person on Thursday, almost three months after he was arrested.
The hearing is the most important thing that has happened in the case so far. It comes at a time when Kirk’s widow and the media are worried about how secretive the proceedings are becoming.
Tyler Robinson, who is charged with aggravated murder and several other felonies related to Kirk’s shooting death at a Utah Valley University event on September 10, has appeared in previous court hearings via video or audio from jail. Since then, a lot of the case has happened behind closed doors, which has led a group of media organizations, including Fox News, to call for more openness.
That group asked that prosecutors and defense attorneys give notice ahead of time whenever they want to seal filings or limit public access. This way, people can challenge those limits before they go into effect.
Roger Bonakdar, a legal analyst and trial lawyer in California, said that the big change in openness has been clear from the start.
“It has been pretty odd that the information tap was at full blast for a little while and now it’s completely shut off,” he said. “It’s really kind of inconsistent with how you see cases move forward typically.”
“When they first arrested Tyler Robinson, the information tap was at full blast,” he said. “They told us that they had audio recordings from Tyler Robinson and a purported confession. They told us that there was video footage from a local fast food restaurant. They were very, very almost oversharing in the beginning.”
“Now they’ve shut that tap off and they’re saying you can’t even come to court and hear about what we’re doing when most of it’s probably procedural,” he continued.
The judge has said that the hearing on Thursday must be in person and as open to the public as possible, but no information from the Oct. 24 hearing may be shared.
The court has also set strict rules for how Robinson can be shown. He can’t be photographed or filmed while in shackles, and he can only be shown sitting down.
Pictures of his family are not allowed, and reporters must follow the court’s order about how to behave.
These restrictions are similar to ones that have been put in place before, such as the postponement of a previous hearing because there were disagreements about whether Robinson could wear jail clothes and how that might affect how people see him.
People have also asked questions about Robinson’s few public appearances. Bonakdar said that security is the most likely reason for keeping him on video.
“They’re gonna say that Tyler Robinson is a security risk… he’s at risk for being hit by someone who wants to seek revenge,” he said. While he acknowledged the reasoning, he added that it is “very clearly a deviation from the norm.”
He said that the hearing on Thursday will be important but not very broad.
He said, “It’s going to be a bit of a one-trick pony. It’s going to be about this order to seal.”
He said that the court set the hearing “specially” to deal with media objections that the secrecy goes against First Amendment rights.
We don’t know yet if Thursday’s hearing will make things clearer or add more restrictions. Bonakdar said that the public needs to at least understand the procedural posture of the case as it moves slowly toward trial, which he warned could still be a year or more away.
