Luigi Mangione wants state murder case dropped, arguing double jeopardy in UnitedHealthcare killing
Luigi Mangione‘s lawyers urging a judge Thursday to throw out his state murder charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arguing that the New York case and a parallel federal death penalty prosecution amount to double jeopardy.If that doesn’t happen, they want terrorism charges dismissed and prosecutors barred from using evidence collected during Mangione’s arrest last December, including a 9 mm handgun, ammunition and a notebook in which authorities say he described his intent to “wack” an insurance executive.Mangione’s lawyers also want to exclude statements he made to police officers who took him into custody at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City, after a five-day search.Among other things, prosecutors say the Ivy League graduate apologized to officers “for the inconvenience of the day,” and expressed concern for a McDonald’s employee who alerted them to his whereabouts, saying: “A lot of people will be upset I was arrested.”Thompson’s Dec.4 killing outside a Manhattan hotel “has led to a legal tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors as they fight for who controls the fate of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione,” his lawyers, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan wrote in a 57-page court filing.They called the dual state and federal cases, plus a third in Pennsylvania involving gun possession and other charges, “unprecedented prosecutorial one-upmanship.”They said prosecutors “are trying to get two bites at the apple to convict Mr.
Mangione” of murder.“Yet, despite the gravest of consequences for Mr.Mangione, law enforcement has methodically and purposefully trampled his constitutional rights,” his lawyers wrote.
They allege officers questioned him without telling him he had a right to remain silent and searched his property without a warrant.The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it would respond in...