Attorneys for Luigi Mangione asked a judge to stop federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against their client, saying the U.S. government “intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt.”
The motion filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the death penalty to “carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Mangione, 26, who faces state murder and terrorism charges in New York, along with federal murder and stalking charges, is accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year in New York City.
I don’t think the judge will agree with you on this, although of course it remains to be seen. Police and prosecutors often make some statements, but the reality is that many potential jurors aren’t watching the news. For example, I didn’t know about this particular statement until I read this article.
Of course almost everyone knows about Luigi himself. That’s not what I’m saying. But if the claim is that a third party government statement has jeopardized the possibility of him getting a fair trial on a death penalty case, that seems to be factually dependent on who’s on the jury and what they saw.