Lawyers of Luigi Mangione, who was accused of the assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. They asked the New York federal judge last Saturday to dismiss some criminal charges, including the only count for which he could be eligible for the death penalty. His attorneys found the court filings, which stated that Luigi Mangione’s death penalty must be dismissed because it doesn’t meet the legal threshold. This means that it will fail to satisfy the minimum requirements or metrics established by law to allow that specific legal action. In filed papers in Manhattan federal court, Mangione’s lawyers specifically said that they do not want the prosecutors to use the files at the trial,
his statements to the law enforcement officers, and his backpack that they confiscated, where a gun and ammunition were found.
The federal prosecutors insist that Mangione stalked Brian Thompson in Manhattan, New York, which was where the executive was due to attend an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown.
Mangione insisted on waiting for Thompson to pass and then shot him at a very close range. The defense said in the filing that it was clear that, in its overall form, this crime could be committed without use, attempted use, or any threatening use of physical force against a citizen or property from another person. The defense also confronted the evidence that was retrieved from the backpack Mangione was carrying at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, where he supposedly got arrested from and also suggested they suppress the evidence at trial because the investigation occurred without any warrant. They claimed that Mangione was not read his rights before the law enforcement officers questioned him.
The assassination set off a multi-state search after the shooter dashed off from the crime scene and rode a bike to centural park, before taking a
taxi to a bus depot that requires service to several nearby states. About 5 days later, a tip from a McDonald’s about 233 miles away in Altoona, Pennsylvania, led to the arrest of Mangione, and he has been held without bail since then.
The attorney for Mangione asked last month that the federal charges be dismissed because Pam Bondi attorney general, had publicly called on the federal prosecutors in New York to seek the death penalty, announcing the assassination of Thompson a premeditated, cold-blooded, targeted crime that appalled America. Federal prosecutors charged Luigi Mangione under federal law on aggravated murders committed with firearms as part of other “crimes of violence”; however, his defense lawyers speculate that stalking, the only other crime charge, isn’t a part of the crime of violence. In September, Judge Gregory Carro dismissed state terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, saying that the federal prosecutors had failed to present the evidence of purpose to
intimidate or compel a civilian population.
Murder cases are typically tried in state courts; murder being the only charge for Mangione to possibly face the death penalty, since it’s usually used in New York state. The aftermath of the assassination has captured the American Imagination, which led to a cascade of grievances and especially online acrimony toward the U.S. insurer while messing with corporate executives who are really concerned about their security. The defense argued that Altoona law enforcement had failed to follow fundamental Fourth Amendment case law, which is at the center of protection against seizures and unnecessary investigations. This should always be required with a warrant based on the problematic occurrence for most incursions on a reasonable basis for someone’s privacy. So this means that they failed to obtain a search warrant before inspecting Mangione’s backpack and the closed containers within the backpack.
The case has divided public opinion, with some seeing Brian Thompson’s murder as a justified act against someone helping run a deeply unjust healthcare system, and some people view it as a cold-blooded assassination by a suspect seeking to be infamous. Mangione is now being held in
Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, reportedly in the same cell as for Sam Bankman-Fried, a convicted cryptocurrency fraudster. The public defense fund for Luigi Mangione has so far raised about $1.3 million. According to a post by Mangione spokesperson Sam Beard on the December 4th committee’s online platform, the legal authorities are attempting to make an example of Mangione in order to intimidate or compel the population into submitting to an irrational system.
After the assassination, investigators found the words “delay”, “deny”, and “depose” written with a Sharpie on the defense at the crime scene. The message was similar to a phrase used by insurance critics. After several days manhunt, Mangione was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where the police found his backpack that investigators said contained the murder weapon, fake ID, and a red notebook that he used as a diary. A federal grand jury charged Luigi Mangione in April this year with 2 counts of stalking, firearms offense, and murder through the use of a firearm. If Mangione were convicted, then he would be eligible to be charged with the death penalty.
Sources: https://www.cnn.com, www.theguardian.com, https://abcnews.go.com
