Charlie Kirk's killer could be executed by firing squad

The suspect in Charlie Kirk's murder has been identified as 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson.

He was taken into custody after a high-profile manhunt following the fatal shooting of the 31-year-old conservative influencer at a rally at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

Utah governor Spencer Cox had previously vowed to subject the person responsible for the fatal shooting to the death penalty when finally apprehended by law enforcement. 

While the primary method of execution in America is lethal injection, there are five states that still use the firing squad as a legal method of capital punishment.

Utah is one of these states, as well as Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina. 

Historically, the use of the firing squad was mainly confined to the state of Utah, when lawmakers in 1851 designated three possible punishments for murder: shooting, hanging or beheading. Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in the U.S., nearly all in Utah.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only four executions of this kind have occurred, with the most recent being Brad Sigmon in March. He was convicted for bludgeoning his ex-girlfriend's parents to death and was executed at South Carolina's Broad River Correctional Institution, making him the first person to die by the firing squad in the states for 15 years.

He chose to forego lethal injection - the method legal in all 27 states which allow capital punishment - due to concerns he had about what little information he felt was known about the drugs as well as the process. 

In 2004, lawmakers in Utah repealed the use of a firing squad as a means of carrying out the death penalty, except in specified situations. The legislation was not retroactive, meaning convicts on death row who opted for the firing squad as opposed to lethal injection before 2004 were still entitled to request being shot to death.

And in 2015, Utah lawmakers voted to bring back execution by the firing squad - but only if the state is unable to obtain the necessary lethal injection drugs within 30 days of a scheduled execution. 

This means that whoever is found guilty of murdering Kirk in Utah could face death by the firing squad, if the state runs out of lethal injection drugs.

The alleged shooter who is now with the police confessed to his father Matt, a member of law enforcement, sources told Daily Mail. 

His father then contacted authorities and secured his son before he could be taken into custody.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the arrest in an appearance on Fox News, where he said that 'someone very close' to the suspect turned him in. 

His mother, Amber Robinson, works for Intermountain Support Coordination Services, a company contracted by the state of Utah to help disabled people receive care.

Robinson was a student at Utah State University on a scholarship but attended for only one semester in 2021, insiders confirmed to Daily Mail.

The family's social media profiles show Robinson, who has two younger brothers, often enjoying family vacations and sharing smiling selfies, including one of his mother celebrating her 'genius' son getting into college.

Robinson was taken into custody around 11pm local time in southern Utah on Thursday night. He lives in a $600,000 six-bedroom home in Washington, Utah - about 260 miles south of Kirk's assassination in Orem.

In one image from Robinson's mother's social media from 2017, he was seen wearing a Donald Trump costume to Halloween.

Kirk was shot in the neck just after beginning a Q&A session as part of his 'American Comeback Tour' in front of around 3,000 students and supporters.

Security rushed him from the stage, and he was transported to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, where he was later pronounced dead. Meanwhile, the shooter was caught on camera dashing across a rooftop in the moments after he opened fire.

In 2012 when he was 18, Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organisation that promoted conservative values, free markets, and limited government to young people, especially on college campuses. 

He leaves behind his wife Erika Frantzve, with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a son, 16 months.