Mangione’s Pathway to Acquittal May Hinge on His Mindset
If lawyers for Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man charged in the killing of UnitedHealth Care CEO Brian Thompson, are to mount a trial defense for their client, experts say they may have to rely on his emotion and mindset to characterize his culpability for his actions against a purported mountain of evidence.
Former prosecutors told Bloomberg News Mangione’s case is one they would have salivated over, suggesting his defense attorneys have their work cut out for them.
“I tried much weaker cases than what this appears to be and won,” Ken Taub, who prosecuted homicides in New York City, said in an interview with the news outlet. “I would love to have a case like this.”
Authorities have said the case against Mangione includes a video, fingerprints and a murder weapon, as well as a manifesto and plan that suggest knowing and deliberate intent to kill.
“This case as it’s been made public so far is a very solid case,” said Rich Esposito, a former Deputy Commissioner with the New York City Police Department, in an interview with CBS. “And if you present it to a grand jury in that logical way, you can’t speculate, but I would find it almost impossible that they don’t indict.”
To get around a preponderance of evidence, Mangione’s high-powered New York defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, could argue her client suffered from a “mental disease or defect,” meaning he did not understand his alleged actions.
Under New York law, Friedman Agnifilo would need to prove Mangione didn’t understand the nature and consequences of his actions.
Before she was hired to represent him, she even floated the idea during a CNN appearance: “There might be a not guilty by reason of insanity defense that they’re going to be thinking about because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did.”
One former prosecutor, however, was skeptical about the prospects of such a defense.
“He knew a gun could discharge a bullet that could kill, and he knew it was wrong, because he fled the jurisdiction and he tried to conceal his identity,” Gary Galperin, a former Manhattan District Attorney’s office prosecutor, told Bloomberg.
Galperin also noted, in New York, Mangione would not be allowed to argue a defense that appeals to biases against the healthcare insurance industry.
None of the evidence authorities say they have collected has been tested in court, and Friedman Agnifilo could challenge whether some of it is admissible based on how it was collected or its relevance to the alleged crime.
When Friedman Agnifilo and her lawyers are able to access evidence authorities have collected, attorney Susan Walsh told Bloomberg their strategy could become much clearer: “What is tantalizing sometimes to the public is not necessarily the truth.”
