Attorneys for the person accused of killing a medical health insurance CEO try to get the demise penalty off the desk, calling a directive to seek capital punishment “a political stunt.”
Legal professionals for Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with homicide within the December assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, filed a movement in search of to dam the demise penalty Friday.
“The stakes couldn’t be increased. The US authorities intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote within the movement filed in Manhattan.
They cited Legal professional Basic Pamela Bondi’s comments when she directed prosecutors to hunt the demise penalty. When she introduced her directions, she stated prosecutors would work to “perform President Trump’s agenda to cease violent crime and Make America Secure Once more.”
Mangione is accused of killing Thompson, CEO of the nation’s largest non-public well being insurer, in an ambush taking pictures on a Midtown Manhattan avenue early Dec. 4.
The phrases “deny,” “depose” and “delay” have been written on two spent shell casings and one bullet discovered on the scene, authorities stated, and prosecutors allege he focused Thompson and deliberate the assault.
Mangione is charged with four federal counts, and he’s additionally charged on New York state counts that embody first-degree homicide in furtherance of terrorism.
Attorneys for Mangione additionally argue within the movement that procedures haven’t been adopted.
The movement says that Mangione’s attorneys “requested for 3 months to arrange a fulsome mitigation submission to the Division of Justice’s Capital Committee and was ignored.”
It additionally cites an Instagram put up by Bondi and argues that she has stated that Mangione is responsible and prejudiced the grand jury course of.
The movement seeks to require that jurors be screened from what it calls Bondi’s prejudicial public statements.
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan didn’t instantly reply to a voicemail in search of remark Friday evening. The Division of Justice didn’t reply to an e-mail in search of remark despatched after enterprise hours.
Mangione is charged federally with one rely every of utilizing a firearm to commit homicide; interstate stalking leading to demise; stalking by use of interstate amenities leading to demise; and discharging a firearm that was outfitted with a silencer in furtherance of against the law of violence.
The rely of utilizing a firearm to commit homicide carries a most penalty of life in jail or demise. The opposite three counts carry as much as life in jail.
Mangione is charged in New York on state counts of first-degree homicide in furtherance of terrorism, however he’s additionally charged on two counts of second-degree homicide. Mangione can be charged with weapons counts and a rely of utilizing a cast instrument.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty within the state case. The state case is about to go first.
He has not but entered a plea within the federal case. He was charged federally by a felony criticism however has not been indicted.
