Luigi Mangione’s legal team is attempting to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty by arguing that authorities prejudiced the case by turning his arrest into a public spectacle.
On Sept. 16, a New York judge dismissed two terrorism-related murder charges against Mangione—two of his highest charges. Shortly after, the accused killer’s team filed a petition arguing that potential jurors had been “imprinted with a scene out of a Marvel movie” thanks to the display authorities made in December, when they staged a perp walk with Mangione in shackles, surrounded by law enforcement officials.
Condemning the violation of Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and arguing that authorities, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, have “fatally prejudiced” the case, his lawyers urged the court to “correct the errors made by the government and prevent this case from proceeding as a death penalty prosecution.”
“Authorities could not resist feeding into the media firestorm that surrounded the [Brian] Thompson killing, the nationwide manhunt, the NYPD leaks, and the torrent of news stories and social media posts about the predatory behavior of large, wealthy insurance companies. The politicians, prosecutors, agents and detectives who staged the perp walk knew it would dominate the news cycle for days,” the petition states.
“Photographs of Mangione in an orange jumpsuit flanked by the mayor and scores of armed agents were ubiquitous. It is impossible to find a New Yorker who didn’t see it. And that was the agents’ objective: to recast Mangione as already guilty, already convicted, already condemned, already facing punishment—in this case, a potential death sentence—in the eyes of the public.”
The petition also condemned the “factually-misleading, prejudicial public statements” Bondi made when she announced the Department of Justice would be seeking the death penalty in Mangione’s case.
“Rather than authorizing the [New York] prosecutors to seek the death penalty in a non-public communication, the Attorney General took the unprecedented action of directing them to do so via press release, knowing that this death penalty investigation would be conducted by presenting evidence to grand jurors exposed to her press release before hearing any evidence,” it reads.
“She did not once say that Mr. Mangione had not yet been indicted for any federal crime, or that these are mere ‘allegations.’ She never once discussed the presumption of innocence or that Mr. Mangione is innocent until proven guilty. She assured the country, including the grand jurors, that she gave the matter ‘careful consideration’ and that her expert opinion, as the head of the Department of Justice and nation’s highest ranking law enforcement officer, was that Mangione warranted execution.”
The petition also references comments made by President Donald Trump, who discussed the case on Fox News on Thursday in violation of court rules, telling Martha MacCallum, “he looked like a pure assassin.”
“He shot him right in the middle of the back. Instantly dead. And now… I’m watching the girls going crazy for him. This is a sickness. This really has to be studied and investigated. It’s not possible.”
The post Mangione Demands Feds’ Capital Case Be Axed Over Bondi’s PR Thirst appeared first on The Daily Beast.
