Utah Governor Spencer Cox has stated that authorities are gathering all the evidence necessary to prosecute with capital punishment the person responsible for the fatal shooting of political commentator Charlie Kirk.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the death penalty is applied in 27 US states, but laws and procedures vary from state to state.
In Utah, aggravated murder is one of the crimes punishable by death.
Utah is also the first state to resume the death penalty after its reinstatement in the United States in 1976.
The first execution took place in 1977, when Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer, was executed by firing squad, a method that is today authorized in only five American states.
Since then, a total of six other executions have been carried out in Utah, including that of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010, who was also executed by firing squad.
There have been efforts to abolish the death penalty in Utah.
In 2022, two Republican lawmakers who had previously supported this punishment, state representative V. Lowry Snow and senator Daniel McCay, proposed a bill to abolish this practice.
However, the bill did not pass, failing by just one vote.
The most recent execution in Utah occurred in August 2024, when Taberon Honie, convicted of murder and rape, was executed, marking the first execution in the state in 14 years.