Luigi Mangione wants state murder case dropped, arguing double jeopardy in UnitedHealthcare killing

[ad_1] NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione‘s attorneys urged a choose Thursday to throw out his state homicide fees within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arguing that the New York case and a parallel federal demise penalty prosecution quantity to double jeopardy.

If that doesn’t occur, they need terrorism fees dismissed and prosecutors barred from utilizing proof collected throughout Mangione’s arrest final December, together with a 9 mm handgun, ammunition and a pocket book through which authorities say he described his intent to “wack” an insurance coverage government.

Mangione’s attorneys additionally need to exclude statements he made to cops who took him into custody at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York Metropolis, after a five-day search.

Amongst different issues, prosecutors say the Ivy League graduate apologized to officers “for the inconvenience of the day,” and expressed concern for a McDonald’s worker who alerted them to his whereabouts, saying: “Lots of people might be upset I used to be arrested.”

Thompson’s Dec. 4 killing outdoors a Manhattan lodge “has led to a authorized tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors as they battle for who controls the destiny of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione,” his attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan wrote in a 57-page court docket submitting.

They known as the twin state and federal instances, plus a 3rd in Pennsylvania involving gun possession and different fees, “unprecedented prosecutorial one-upmanship." They stated prosecutors ”are attempting to get two bites on the apple to convict Mr. Mangione" of homicide.

“But, regardless of the gravest of penalties for Mr. Mangione, regulation enforcement has methodically and purposefully trampled his constitutional rights,” his attorneys wrote. They allege officers questioned him with out telling him he had a proper to stay silent and searched his property with out a warrant.

The Manhattan district legal professional's workplace stated it will reply in court docket papers.

The protection’s calls for to finish or restrict Mangione’s state case might preview his authorized technique for his federal homicide case, the place prosecutors intend to hunt the demise penalty. The state fees carry a most punishment of life in jail.

Mangione, who turns 27 on Tuesday, has pleaded not responsible in each instances. He has been held in a Brooklyn federal jail since authorities whisked him to New York by aircraft and helicopter after his arrest.

Mangione is due again in court docket for the state case on June 26, when Decide Gregory Carro is predicted to rule on the dismissal request. He subsequent federal court docket date is Dec. 5, a day after the one-year anniversary of Thompson’s demise. No trial date has been set in both case.

Prosecutors had stated they anticipated the state case go to trial first, however Friedman Agnifilo stated final week that she needs the federal case to take priority as a result of it entails the demise penalty.

Together with looking for to dismiss the state case, Mangione’s attorneys alternatively requested Carro to throw out fees alleging he killed “in furtherance of terrorism" and as an act of terrorism. They argue there are “completely no info to help this idea" and that charging him below a post-9/11 terrorism statute flouts the intent of lawmakers.

Surveillance video confirmed a masked gunman capturing Thompson from behind as the manager arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor convention. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” have been scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase generally used to explain how insurers keep away from paying claims.

Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg has stated that the ambush “was a killing that was supposed to evoke terror.”

Mangione’s federal fees embody homicide via use of a firearm, which carries the potential of the demise penalty, together with two counts of stalking and a firearms offense.

Final month, U.S. Legal professional Common Pam Bondi introduced that she was directing Manhattan federal prosecutors to hunt the demise penalty for the killing, calling it “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

The killing and ensuing search resulting in Mangione’s arrest rattled the enterprise group whereas galvanizing medical insurance critics who rallied round Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty payments.

Of their submitting Thursday, Mangione’s attorneys argued that the conflicting theories of the state and federal instances — aspiring to “intimidate or coerce a civilian inhabitants" vs. stalking a single particular person — has created a “authorized quagmire” that makes it “legally and logistically unattainable to defend in opposition to them concurrently.”

"This case is so constitutionally fraught that we're arduous pressed to seek out precedent for such an unprecedented state of affairs," Mangione’s attorneys wrote.