In December, Luigi Mangione was arrested for shooting health insurance executive Brian Thompson. Last week, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced that she was seeking the death penalty. It’s a highly unusual announcement, since Mangione hasn’t even been indicted yet on a federal level. (He has been indicted in Manhattan.) By intervening in this high-profile case, the Trump administration has made clear that it believes that CEOs are especially important people whose deaths need to be swiftly and mercilessly avenged.

  • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe
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    2 hours ago

    I’m glad they’re seeking the death penalty.

    Because it makes it much easier for the defence team to argue that the prosecution is trying to turn the law into a spectacle, and that Luigi should be acquitted of all charges.

  • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    The bullets Mangione used to kill Thomson had “deny,” “delay,” and “depose” inscribed on them.

    Allegedly. The reporter forgot to be professional for a moment.

  • Rachel@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 hours ago

    I think the death penalty being on the table would increase the likelihood of the jury finding a reasonable doubt or jury nullification. It would only hurt the prosecution imo.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      OR it’s going to prejudice the jury against him, like it usually does.

      When capital punishment is on the table, only people who are in favor of it are selected for the jury, and people who are in favor of state murder are MUCH more likely to return a guilty verdict than people who aren’t.

      That’s one of hundreds of reasons why civilized legal systems don’t murder prisoners anymore.

      • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe
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        2 hours ago

        Why the fuck does the prosecution have the ability to put punishments on the table that are known to bias jury selection?

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        Doesn’t the defense have just as much say in terms of who gets selected out and which signals are used to parse that

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          34 minutes ago

          Not really, no.

          AFAIK, the defense and the prosecution get the same number of “just because it’s bad for my side” exclusions, but not being inclined to render a guilty verdict if there’s a possibility of the death penalty is an automatic exclusion that doesn’t count towards the prosecution’s “freebees”.

          So yeah, the moment death penalty is on the table, the jury will be biased AND the defense will be much more likely no consider a plea deal for a lesser punishment, further stacking the deck in favor of the prosecution winning one way or the other regardless of actual guilt.

    • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      I kind of agree, if I were in the jury, it would make me think twice about finding them guilty since I would feel like I have someone’s death on my hands.

    • Chozo@fedia.io
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      6 hours ago

      Yep, if you set the bar extraordinarily high, then you have to jump extraordinarily high. Bondi’s likely doing more harm than good for her cause.

    • primemagnus@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      Trump and his sycophants are really really dumb. Like, really. All they have is muscle. Zero brains.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Why does it feel like the trump administration would use Mangione’s acquittal by jury as a reason to try to attack and do away with the 6th Amendment (trial by jury amendment)?

      • EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 hours ago

        Luckily it would be really hard for them to actually get rid of it. I wouldn’t put it past them to try to start doing summary executions or just illegally trying to detain people without trial or whatever but there’s 0 chance they get the support to actually remove that amendment.

      • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Trump always starts with the “worst” criminals as he knows it’s hard for Democrats or others to object since they don’t want to be “on the side of criminals,” but it won’t end there.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    I’ll defend it:

    He traveled to murder a guy he never met before after stalking him online, carved words from a manifesto into bullet casings, engineered a 3D printable unregistered firearm, fled the scene of the crime with enough cash to live off of for years, and openly denies any wrongdoing by pleading innocent. He is absolutely likely to try it again, or perhaps worse, if released.

    If the death penalty exists, and honestly I don’t think it should, then it should apply fairly and treat all human life equally.

    • Naevermix@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I mean, sure he went through a lot of effort, but I don’t think we should hold that against him.

      After all, US soldiers goes through a lot of effort to kill people they’ve never met before.

    • barnaclebutt@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Welcome to down votes, where you fail to see that they are being extra hard on him because he shot one of the surface dwellers. The difference is his alleged motivations which were to kill someone that has been actively engaging in spreading human misery for profit. In a practical sense, he allegedly killed a mass murderer that was for some reason never charged with a crime.

    • Nate Cox@programming.dev
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      6 hours ago

      He is currently innocent of all of those charges.

      We don’t get to pick and choose when innocent before proven guilty gets applied. Openly stating that they’re seeking the death penalty before he’s even been indicted is weird and wrong.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Nobody is talking about taking him out back and shooting him. They’re discussing if the maximum punishment for the crime if and when found guilty should include death.

        • Nate Cox@programming.dev
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          5 hours ago

          No, they’re not.

          They’re not discussing what the appropriate penalties should be—which, by the way, is typically done at the end of a trial during the sentencing phase, after all evidence has been presented and a guilty verdict has been delivered, because punishment is supposed to be reflective of the evidence presented—they’re saying that they’ve already decided that the target penalty is death.

          That’s a clear nod that they want to make an example, a concept divorced from justice.

        • chingadera@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Well this case absolutely looks like any other murder charge doesn’t it? And to touch on your other comment, it’s just as fair for everyone. The search for the suspect was like any other, the treatment with the media was like any other, and the federal government is holding back from intervening in a state case to poison the already tainted public before a jury can be formed just like any other case. Right?

          Nothing has been proven, and there is no defense for how this person is being treated even IF he did do what is alleged. This country was founded on this principle.

    • chonkyninja@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      In what world does someone on the run carry a fuck load of cash, versus stashing it at a destination? Also you need to read the police reports, they fucked up big time, they had to search his backpack 3 fucking times before finding the supposed murder weapon, a back pack, 3 times. Think about that. Oh yeah and the third time was out of site of all the body and stores cameras.

    • justsomeguy@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I remember back in the day in history class we’d discuss if murdering a tyrant is morally wrong and how it should be treated by the law. The class pretty much agreed if you 360 quick tomahawk someone who causes millions of deaths it’s fair game.

    • blakenong@lemmings.world
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      3 hours ago

      It most of that is them saying it. And they lie all the time. I don’t believe much of it, and I think I need more untampered evidence showing it was him. I’m rooting for the innocent scapegoat.

    • axh@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      He is absolutely likely to try it again, or perhaps worse, if released.

      That would justify the life penalty (if proven), it exists for a reason.

    • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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      6 hours ago

      There is nothing fair about applying the death penalty for a man acting in defence of his country. That shit should be reserved for school shooters or republicans.