Luigi Mangione, the man arrested in the Dec. 4 killing of United Healthcare’s chief executive, has been charged with crimes in both New York and Pennsylvania, including a terrorism count.
Mr. Mangione faces three murder charges in the killing of the executive, Brian Thompson, in Manhattan: the first-degree murder charge that brands him as a terrorist and two variations of second-degree murder.
It is common for prosecutors to file several charges for one crime, to ensure “that they’re covering all their bases,” said Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School.
If convicted on the highest charge, Mr. Mangione, 26, faces life in prison without parole. He is scheduled to return on Thursday to a courthouse in Pennsylvania for two hearings, including one on the gun and forgery charges he faces there and another on efforts to extradite him to New York.
Mr. Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pa., after a customer at a McDonald’s recognized him and tipped off an employee, who then alerted law enforcement.
His arrest came after a dayslong manhunt that captivated Americans, many of whom expressed frustration with health insurance companies. Some people rooted for the gunman and said they hoped he would not be captured.
Here is a breakdown of the charges against Mr. Mangione:
What are the charges in New York?
Mr. Mangione’s biggest legal challenge is a first-degree murder charge.
Prosecutors said in filings this week that Mr. Mangione’s actions were meant to further terrorism, and were “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” and to “affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder.”
In New York, a premeditated killing is not automatically considered first-degree murder. The state also requires an additional aggravating circumstance, such as torture, killing a witness or law enforcement officer, or terrorism.
“This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation,” Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Mr. Mangione’s other charges include second-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, another count of standard second-degree murder and a weapons charge.
First-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole; the maximum penalty for a second-degree murder conviction is life with parole.
The lesser offenses — the second-degree charges — were included because “if for any reason the jury doesn’t find first-degree murder, they can convict on second-degree murder,” said Claire Finkelstein, a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s frequent, at least at the indictment stage, to see lesser included offenses,” she said.
What is the legal definition of terrorism?
The F.B.I. defines domestic terrorism as violent crimes committed by a person or group whose motivations are of “a political, religious, social, racial or environmental nature.”
Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor, said that based on what is known about the case, “this was an effort not just to kill somebody, but to make a statement that would have an effect on others and perhaps on policy, and that really is what terrorism is all about.”
“Prosecutors around the country for some time have tried to make clear in various ways that terrorism comes in all shapes and forms,” he said.
Bringing the terrorism charges comes with benefits and risks for prosecutors.
“A possible risk is that this puts before the jury squarely the issue of what exactly drove him to do what he did and his grievance with the insurance industry,” Professor Richman said. A defense lawyer, he said, could “take advantage of the real hostility” that many people have toward insurers and seek to put the industry on trial.
What are the Pennsylvania charges?
Mr. Mangione faces five charges in Pennsylvania, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities and possessing “instruments of crime,” according to a criminal complaint.
He was found with a ghost gun and a suppressor, both of which had been created with a 3-D printer, a device that sculpts a physical object from a digital model. He was also found with a fake driver’s license and a 262-word handwritten manifesto that indicated that he saw the killing as a direct challenge to the health care industry’s “corruption” and “power games.”
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