John Jefferson
Suspected assassin Luigi Mangione returns to a New York criminal court Friday for a hearing in connection with state murder and terrorism charges in a sprawling case surrounding the assassination-style murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
The 26-year-old former Ivy Leaguer is accused of stalking Thompson, a married father of two, and shooting him in the back outside a shareholder conference in early December, in an alleged attack that investigators have painted as cold-blooded and premeditated.
Many of his defenders have been quick to note he is considered innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law. But his significant support is prompting concerns of potential jury nullification — when jurors deliver a verdict based on ideology rather than the law.
“Jury selection is going to be critical in Mangione’s case,” said Edwina Elcox, a Boise-based defense attorney whose former clients have included the so-called “Cult Mom” Lori Vallow. “He is viewed as a modern-day Robin Hood.”
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Donations to his legal defense fund have surpassed $500,000 — racking in more than $200,000 over the past 10 days, when supporters touted nearing the $300,000 milestone with the help of more than 10,000 donors. Some proponents have even described him as a “humanitarian.”
“It’s a fascinating case,” Elcox told Fox News Digital. “The CEO was a terribly unsympathetic figurehead of a company that has droves of horror stories about how [it] treated people who desperately needed various medical interventions — juxtaposed against handsome, educated, talented young man with no criminal history.”
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While both sides will likely focus heavily on voir dire, there’s still strong evidence in the case, said Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector.
“Jury nullification could always be an issue, especially with how this kid has come to encapsulate so many progressive gripes against corporations and the insurance industry, but I don’t think even Manhattan criminal justice has been that completely defanged,” he told Fox News Digital. “Yes, this is the venue that got us Alvin Bragg, but this is also the venue in which 12 ordinary New Yorkers acquitted Daniel Penny.”
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The case looks “very strong” at this stage, he said, and he expects jurors to weigh evidence responsibly.
“And anyone who thinks jury nullification is a good idea, I would only remind them that there is a federal death penalty case against Mangione lurking behind Bragg’s case, should the feds need to bring it,” he added.
Mangione faces three separate criminal proceedings, in New York, Pennsylvania, and federal court.
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The slaying has been politically charged from the start — after police revealed that they recovered bullet casings at the scene with handwritten messages on them: “defend,” “depose” and “deny.”
Those words are eerily similar to the title of a book that is highly critical of Thompson’s health insurance industry, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It,” written by Jay Feinman and published in 2010.
WATCH ‘DENY, DEFEND, DELAY: THE MURDER OF A CEO’ ON FOX NATION
Mangione has a degree from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and attended an elite private high school in Baltimore. Despite some supporters’ characterization of him as an anti-capitalist crusader, he allegedly stopped at a New York City Starbucks for coffee minutes before the murder and was ultimately arrested eating hashbrowns at a McDonald’s in Altoona.
Mangione, who police allege kept a journal about the crime, is accused of “meticulously” planning the murder with the motive of igniting a “public discussion about the healthcare industry,” according to the Justice Department.
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Federal prosecutors allege he stalked the victim, arrived in New York City a week in advance and scouted his surroundings. Police allegedly found his DNA and fingerprints near the crime scene and say he had a gun linked to the murder in his backpack when he was arrested days later.
The NYPD released a still image from surveillance video, showing him pulling his coronavirus mask down and smiling while flirting with a clerk at the check-in of the Manhattan hostel where police say he stayed for the murder. It went viral and immediately attracted a wave of support online for the accused killer.
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Police said they allegedly recovered the suspected murder weapon, a 3D-printed suppressor and the same fake ID used to check into the New York hostel upon Mangione’s arrest.
The group behind his defense fundraiser, the self-titled December 4 Legal Committee, describes itself as “a team of 15 volunteers around the United States” that was “created independently by Mangione’s supporters on his behalf.” Two of its spokespersons, Sam Beard and Jamie Peck, also host a podcast “about communism and gossip” called “Party Girls.”
A Monday hearing in the Pennsylvania case has been postponed as he awaits trial on more serious charges in New York and in federal court, which could result in a sentence of life in prison without parole or death, respectively.
Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
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