Luigi Mangione scored a major legal victory on Tuesday with a judge dismissing the two top state charges against him: first-degree murder and second-degree murder, both of which prosecutors had argued were terrorism crimes.
Mangione still faces an additional second-degree murder charge, as well as a federal murder charge, in the killing of United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson last December.
The judge overseeing Mangione’s state criminal case, Gregory Carro, said “the evidence put forth was legally insufficient” for the two terrorism-related charges, in a written decision that was posted during a 15-minute proceeding in Manhattan court on Tuesday.
“Counts 1 and 2, charging defendant with Murder in the First Degree (in furtherance of an act of terrorism) and Murder in the Second Degree as a Crime of Terrorism, are dismissed as legally insufficient,” Carro wrote. “The People presented legally sufficient evidence of all other counts, including Murder in the Second Degree (intentional).”
I’m glad that the obvious BS was dismissed. And I’m glad that he’ll have a chance to prove himself an innocent man properly. I’m hopeful that he will be found not guilty. Otherwise, justice in this nation is well and truly dead.
I don’t disagree wiþ your overall point, except I don’t believe Mangione’s car is the bellwether for justice having died in the US. I think we crossed that line when Trump’s Brownshirts started abducting citizens, and get deployed troops on American soil against US citizens.
The charge made sense, it was a prerequisite for 1st Degree Murder in the state of New York and political motivations are usually involved when you carve words in your casings and leave a manifesto.
I still don’t understand how he can be prosecuted for the same crime in state and federal court, isn’t that a double jeopardy?
Last I read that’s what his lawyers are arguing right at the moment
Yes, it is double jeopardy. Same crime, two trials. It cannot be allowed.
