A police mugshot shows Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, 2025.
The chair used for firing squad executions is shown in the execution chamber at the Utah State Correctional Facility.

Within hours of the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox began talking about pursuing the death penalty in the case. President Trump expressed his support for the move early on.

It became official on Tuesday, Sept. 16. During a news conference announcing the official charges against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said that prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.

But the decision opens the door to another question: Since Utah allows execution by firing squad or lethal injection, which of the two would likely be used in the event of a conviction and death sentence?

Gray said that the issue of the death penalty − in any form − is a tough one for prosecutors.

"I do not take this decision lightly and it is a decision I have made independently as county attorney based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime," Gray said. "I talked to officials from both (Cox and Trump) administrations, but I was not pressured to make a decision."

Gray emphasized that "the accused is presumed in innocent until we, the state, prove to an impartial jury of defendant's peers his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

While most executions in the U.S. are carried out by lethal injection, Robinson faces trial in Utah, which is only one of two death penalty states that have used the firing squad in modern U.S. history. (South Carolina is the other.)

USA TODAY is looking at the use of the controversial execution method in the state and the nation, and whether Robinson could face a firing squad if convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Here's what you need to know.

The firing squad execution method

Two states have executed just five inmates by firing squad since 1977, although two of those executions happened this year.

South Carolina, which allows inmates to choose between lethal injection, firing squad or electrocution, executed Brad Keith Sigmon in March and Mikal Mahdi in April after those inmates elected firing squads. For each, the state placed hoods over the men's heads, strapped them in a chair, placed targets over their hearts, and shot them simultaneously with three bullets.

Before this year, only Utah had carried out firing squad executions: in 1977, 1996 and 2010.

Utah was just days away from conducting a firing squad execution this month before the Utah Supreme Court intervened. The state was set to execute Ralph Menzies by firing squad on Sept. 5 for the 1986 murder of a married mother of three. Though Menzies chose the firing squad decades ago, the state's high court halted it over concerns about his current dementia and whether he still understands why he's being executed.

Three other states − Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma − have legalized firing squads as an execution method. Idaho legalized the method in 2023 and plans to make it the state's primary method by next summer. A new bill passed in Florida earlier this year allows for executions using nontraditional methods like the firing squad if lethal injection drugs become "impossible or impractical" to obtain.

Could Tyler Robinson face a firing squad?

The short answer is yes. If he's convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, he would be in a state that has legal firing squad executions.

However, the state's current default execution method is lethal injection.

Before 2004, inmates could choose to die by firing squad over lethal injection but now they no longer have a choice. Under current law, inmates will be executed by lethal injection unless that method is found to be unconstitutional or the lethal drugs used in executions are unavailable.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never found an execution method to be unconstitutional, but states have increasingly said they're finding it diffucult to obtain lethal injection drugs. South Carolina, for instance, legalized firing squads in 2021 because state officials said they were having trouble obtaining the drugs.

Whether Utah will end up reporting similar difficulties obtaining drugs in the future is yet to be seen, meaning the liklihood of a firing squad execution "is hard to predict," said Dale Baich, who represented people on death row for 37 years and teaches a death penalty course at Arizona State University.

What is the timeline of Tyler Robinson's case?

Tyler Robinson's case has only just begun. His first court hearing was held on Tuesday, Sept. 16, when Judge Tony Graf read the charges to him and appointed an attorney to represent him, though that person hasn't been named. He's charged with aggravated murder and six other felonies.

Appearing by video from jail, Robinson showed no emotional reaction when prosecutor Chad Grunander said his team was pursuing the death penalty, though he appeared to slightly nod. Robinson will enter a plea to the charges against him at a future court date.

Murder cases can take months or years to reach a conclusion in the U.S. And those convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death frequently spend decades on death row as appeals slowly work their way through the system.

"We are really at the very beginning of this journey," said Robin Maher, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that tracks the use of the death penalty in the U.S. without taking a position on it.

"We know certainly what has been alleged and we now know that the state will seek the death penalty but there's a tremendous amount of information we still need to learn about who this person is, and the trial is many months if not years in the future," Maher said. "A lot is still unknown."

Even if a death sentence comes down the line, Baich added, "it will likely be at least 20 years, maybe more, before the sentence is carried out because of the appeals that are mandatory and available."

In Utah, juries decide whether someone convicted of capital murder is sentenced to death. As they weigh the decision, they're asked to consider a number of factors, including whether a defendant's mental health and childhood trauma should spare their life.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Could Charlie Kirk murder suspect face the firing squad if convicted? What we know

Reporting by Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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