Death penalty methods in Utah explained as Charlie Kirk murder suspect faces capital punishment

The man who is suspected of assassinating political activist Charlie Kirk is expected to face capital punishment in Utah.

The 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA - a conservative student organization - was shot in the neck while speaking to a crowd at Utah Valley University, in Orem, on Wednesday (September 10).

The singular shot, which resulted in Kirk being pronounced dead in a local hospital, was fired from a sniper on a nearby rooftop of the college campus at around 12.20pm, while he was answering questions about mass shootings and gun violence.

Kirk himself was pro-guns, speaking at a Turning Point event in Salt Lake City in April 2023, he said: "It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment."

Law enforcement officials have confirmed that they believe the shooter to be 22-year-old Utah native, Tyler Robinson.

While officials are yet to give a motive as to why the assassin killed Kirk, if Robinson is convicted he could face capital punishment. But how exactly would it work in Utah?

Well, the 'Beehive State' is one of a few in America that still permits multiple methods of execution, although it is mandatory to carry out death by lethal injection.

In 2010, Ronnie Lee Gardner became only the third person to be executed by firing squad in the modern era - and until last year, Utah hadn't executed anyone since.

On August 8, 2024, Taberon Honie became the first person in Utah to be executed by the state since the death of Gardner. It cost a staggering $288,685 to carry out the execution.

The majority of the funds was used to purchase pentobarbital, the drug used to administer the lethal injection, which cost $200,000.

Tyler Robinson has been arrested in connection to the shooting of Charlie Kirk (Utah Governor's Office)

Meanwhile, Ralph Menzies was due to be executed by way of firing squad on Friday last week (September 5), but a week before it was due to go ahead, a court halted the order after his defense cited that he was suffering with dementia so severe that he did not understand why he was being executed.

However, if the shooter of Kirk is sentenced to death, they would not be able to choose to die by way of firing squad as Menzies was - that's because of legislature brought in back in 2004 that details how those on death row after that date must die by lethal injection.

That is unless the state is not able to apprehend the drug a month prior to execution date, in which case firing squad is a back-up method.