Luigi Mangione’s CEO homicide case raises issues of jury nullification

Suspected murderer Luigi Mangione returns to a New York felony court docket Friday for a listening to in reference to state homicide and terrorism prices in a sprawling case surrounding the assassination-style homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.

The 26-year-old former Ivy Leaguer is accused of stalking Thompson, a married father of two, and taking pictures him within the again exterior a shareholder convention in early December, in an alleged assault that investigators have painted as cold-blooded and premeditated.

Lots of his defenders have been fast to notice he’s thought-about harmless till confirmed responsible within the eyes of the legislation. However his vital help is prompting issues of potential jury nullification — when jurors ship a verdict primarily based on ideology slightly than the legislation.

“Jury choice goes to be vital in Mangione’s case,” mentioned Edwina Elcox, a Boise-based protection legal professional whose former shoppers have included the so-called “Cult Mother” Lori Vallow. “He’s seen as a modern-day Robin Hood.”

LUIGI MANGIONE SUPPORTERS WHINE ABOUT SUSPECTED CEO ASSASSIN’S PORTRAYAL IN ‘CORPORATE BACKED NARRATIVE’

Donations to his authorized protection fund have surpassed $500,000 — racking in additional than $200,000 over the previous 10 days, when supporters touted nearing the $300,000 milestone with the assistance of greater than 10,000 donors. Some proponents have even described him as a “humanitarian.”

“It’s an interesting case,” Elcox advised Fox Information Digital. “The CEO was a very unsympathetic figurehead of an organization that has droves of horror tales about how [it] handled individuals who desperately wanted varied medical interventions — juxtaposed in opposition to good-looking, educated, gifted younger man with no felony historical past.” 

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Whereas either side will doubtless focus closely on voir dire, there’s nonetheless robust proof within the case, mentioned Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector.

“Jury nullification may all the time be a problem, particularly with how this child has come to encapsulate so many progressive gripes in opposition to companies and the insurance coverage trade, however I don’t suppose even Manhattan felony justice has been that utterly defanged,” he advised Fox Information Digital. “Sure, that is the venue that obtained us Alvin Bragg, however that is additionally the venue during which 12 strange New Yorkers acquitted Daniel Penny.”

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The case seems “very robust” at this stage, he mentioned, and he expects jurors to weigh proof responsibly.

“And anybody who thinks jury nullification is a good suggestion, I’d solely remind them that there’s a federal loss of life penalty case in opposition to Mangione lurking behind Bragg’s case, ought to the feds must deliver it,” he added.

Mangione faces three separate felony proceedings, in New York, Pennsylvania, and federal court docket.

UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE INDICTED IN NEW YORK

The slaying has been politically charged from the beginning — after police revealed that they recovered bullet casings on the scene with handwritten messages on them: “defend,” “depose” and “deny.”

These phrases are eerily just like the title of a ebook that’s extremely vital of Thompson’s medical health insurance trade, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance coverage Corporations Do not Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It,” written by Jay Feinman and revealed in 2010.

WATCH ‘DENY, DEFEND, DELAY: THE MURDER OF A CEO’ ON FOX NATION

Mangione has a level from the Ivy League College of Pennsylvania and attended an elite personal highschool in Baltimore. Regardless of some supporters’ characterization of him as an anti-capitalist crusader, he allegedly stopped at a New York Metropolis Starbucks for espresso minutes earlier than the homicide and was in the end arrested consuming hashbrowns at a McDonald’s in Altoona.

Mangione, who police allege stored a journal concerning the crime, is accused of “meticulously” planning the homicide with the motive of igniting a “public dialogue concerning the healthcare trade,” in line with the Justice Division.

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Federal prosecutors allege he stalked the sufferer, arrived in New York Metropolis every week upfront and scouted his environment. Police allegedly discovered his DNA and fingerprints close to the crime scene and say he had a gun linked to the homicide in his backpack when he was arrested days later.

The NYPD launched a nonetheless picture from surveillance video, displaying him pulling his coronavirus masks down and smiling whereas flirting with a clerk on the check-in of the Manhattan hostel the place police say he stayed for the homicide. It went viral and instantly attracted a wave of help on-line for the accused killer.

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Police mentioned they allegedly recovered the suspected homicide weapon, a 3D-printed suppressor and the identical pretend ID used to test into the New York hostel upon Mangione’s arrest. 

The group behind his protection fundraiser, the self-titled December 4 Authorized Committee, describes itself as “a staff of 15 volunteers round the USA” that was “created independently by Mangione’s supporters on his behalf.” Two of its spokespersons, Sam Beard and Jamie Peck, additionally host a podcast “about communism and gossip” referred to as “Occasion Ladies.”

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A Monday listening to within the Pennsylvania case has been postponed as he awaits trial on extra critical prices in New York and in federal court docket, which may end in a sentence of life in jail with out parole or loss of life, respectively. 

Fox Information’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.