Tyler Robinson might be sent to a terrifying prison if convicted of the murder of Charlie Kirk.
On Friday (12 September), the FBI announced that they had the suspected killer of Kirk in custody.
In a press conference, it was shared that 22-year-old man named Tyler Robinson, from Utah, was detained after a family member reached out to a friend who then tipped off authorities.
Kirk was shot in the neck on 10 September during a debate at a Utah university campus.
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He was talking to Hunter Kozak about transgender mass shooters when he was killed.
After he was shot, Kirk was rushed to the hospital before President Donald Trump revealed he had passed away.
Later, Trump said in an interview with Fox News that the suspect was in custody, and he hoped Kirk’s killer would receive the death penalty.
"I hope he's gonna be found guilty, I would imagine, and I hope he gets the death penalty for what he did," he said.
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Capital punishment is legal in Utah - something that Governor Spencer Cox warned the suspect while he was still at large, in a press conference: "I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this, we will find you, we will try you and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law and I just want to remind people we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah."
Utah uses both lethal injection and firing squad to execute prisoners on Death Row.
However, it is used sparingly as only eight executions have taken place since 1976.
But prosecutors will have to prove that Robinson put others at 'a great risk of death' to have him eligible for the sentence.
According to MSNBC, the affidavit claims that a state officer thinks this could be done as he said Robinson shot Kirk 'in a circumstance that put many around him at grave risk of death', as Kirk was surrounded by 3,000 people at the time of his murder.
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The prison in question is the Salt Lake City prison, which only opened three years ago.
Utah State Correctional Facility opened in July 2022 to replace the 70-year-old state prison.
It has around 3,600 beds for prisoners and houses both men and women.
It’s a mixed security facility, that holds people with little security needs to maximum security care.
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The Daily Mail reported it cost one billion dollars to erect and was designed to aid in the recovery and rehabilitation of inmates.
It offers mental health, medical and geriatric care.
As for its execution history, there has only been one execution carried out since 2010.
Taberone Honie was executed in the building’s new execution chamber on 8 August last year.
Shockingly, the prison has come down with many controversies, despite being open just three years.
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This includes a scabies outbreak, drug issues and too little staff.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services revealed 140 inmates received treatment for scabies and the prison went on lockdown in March.
Topics: Charlie Kirk, Crime, Politics, US News, Mental Health
Britt Jones