Blogger’s Note: This is a commentary with info not believed by this blog, it’s speculation only.
For those who didn’t follow the news, Mangioni was charged with killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
It was an interesting reaction from all corners of the US. There was shock as the killing happening in broad daylight, and folks saying the CEO deserved it. United health customers went online with statements like this: “My ______ was denied treatment by United Health and he got what he deserved” was actually a thing. The latter, while not a majority of the US, was likely a higher percentage of folks than expected.
Mangioni faced both a federal and state trial for murder. His legal team actually got a couple of wins. Federal terrorism charges and the death penalty were off the table. Terrorism charges are a thing due to the Patriot Act, which says essence that killing or threatening to kill someone can get you labeled as a terrorist. Oh, that charge comes with a death penalty eligible sentence.
I honestly thought this was headed for trial, I believe William agrees. The trial would have been held in New York and there are enough bleeding-heart types there that I think you could have had a hung jury. Think about it, the number of conspiracy theorists, whack jobs, and folks who share the belief the CEO got what he deserved there was likely a better than 0% chance he could walk.
I spoke to a friend of the blog from law firm Low, Ballem and Lynch and she had an interesting take on this. She stated Mangioni’s legal team likely got bad news at a hearing about evidence and decided they were cooked. Rumor on the interwebs is there was a manifesto essentially stating he wanted to kill this CEO, and he apparently called the company claiming he was a multi-millionaire and wanted to invest in the company, hence he got the details on the whereabouts of the CEO that day.
(Reminds me of the John Malkovich character in Clint Eastwood’s “In the Line of Firm” movie.)
My lawyer friend said evidence like that essentially means you are cooked and copping a plea is the right move.
She made another interesting point that I never had thought of. His legal team is playing the long game. He will do 20-30 years in federal prison. Federal prison is far nicer than state prison. (He is also charged with murder in New York State Court). New York is home to a couple of brutal state prisons; Rikers Island and Attica. She thinks you cop a plea and argue in state court that their charges constitute double jeopardy. Double jeopardy is a legal term that you can’t be charged by two entities for the same crime. Whether he wins or not will be interesting. If the state charge is thrown out, he will walk out of prison a free man one day.
I understand the reason to cop a plea, but it would have been interesting to go to trial. One item most overlooked in criminal trials is the jury needs to be unanimous to convict, one hold out hangs the jury. Civil court only requires a majority. Just takes one.
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