Evangelist Frank Turek is calling on the death penalty to be considered as the trial approaches for Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson. Turek was a close friend and spiritual mentor of Kirk’s and was present the day he was assassinated on September 10. Turek has spoken openly about Kirk’s last minutes as they rushed him to the hospital. “Charlie wasn’t there. His eyes were fixed,” Turek said of how he frantically tried to stop Kirk’s bleeding on the way to the hospital. “He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking past me, right into eternity. He was with Jesus already. He was killed instantly and felt absolutely no pain. That’s what I was told later. But of course, we had to try.”

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Turek discussed the Biblical defense for capital punishment. “Obviously, we have to do this advisedly. We have to make sure beyond any reasonable doubt that the person is indeed guilt,” he cautioned. He cited Romans 13, where the government is noted to “bear the sword,” stating that was a reference to capital punishment. He noted, however, that the government and individual have different roles in justice. “People will say, ‘What about turn the other cheek?’ This is where people don’t seem to understand,” he said. “There are different commands for individuals and different commands for government. If governments were to always turn the other cheek, we would have anarchy, nobody would be secure, people would be murdered, people would be raped, people would have their livelihoods stolen from them.” Posting to X, Turek affirmed that he was in favor of seeking the death penalty for Kirk’s killer. “Charlie Kirk’s killer should get the death penalty. Jesus and Paul affirmed it is a legitimate punishment,” he wrote.

Kirk himself, affirmed support for the death penalty prior to his death. “God repeated in all five books of the Torah, ‘You take a life, your life will be taken,’” Kirk told a person who questioned him on being pro-life and pro death penalty. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, deferred the decision to the government. During her first public interview since her husband’s murder, Fox News’s Jesse Watters, she responded to what she believes Robinson’s fate should be. “I do not want this man’s blood on my ledger when I stand before the Lord,” she said. “I want the government to decide. It’s Biblical too. Justice will ultimately be served.”