LOS ANGELES (OC).–As United Healthcare CEO Brian Thomson comes up to the Dec. 4 one-year anniversary of his cold blooded killing by 27-year-old Luigi Mangione. When Luigi shot Thomson in the back in Midtown Manhattan, he only had what looked like glee, believing he was doing the world a service by taking out a symbol of today’s health care nightmare. Now that he’s under suicide watch in a Manhattan jail, his attorneys are pulling out all the stops, trying to get evidence tossed out before an eventual trial. Mangione’s attorney’s claim that Pennsylvania police didn’t properly read his Miranda Rights or to search in private possessions like his backpack or his diary where he scribbled the motive behind the attack, namely, to punish the health care industry for putting profits before quality. Luigi’s defense attorneys want all the evidence found stricken from the record..
Mangione’s defense team says that when Pennsylvania police approached him at an Altoona, Pa. McDonalds, they didn’t properly give him his Miranda Rights. Instead they asked him questions of his whereabouts over the last five days, including fleeing the murder scene, somehow managing to escape the dragnet in Manhattan. Luigi still managed to escape police and get to a Greyhound Bus station to flee to Pennsylvania. “Despite the gravest of consequences for Mr. Mangione, law enforcement has methodically and purposefully trampled his constitutional rights,” said Mangione’s attorney in a motion. Maginone’s attorneys claim Altoona police asked him whether he was recently in New York and why he lied about his identity. Asking New York Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carp to strike all evidence collected by Pennsylvania police from testimony at trial.
New York police have video footage of shooting Thomson in the back at point-blank range, attesting to the premeditate nature of his crime, lying in wait, stalking Thomson, then gunning him down. Mangione’s defense attorneys want all incriminating statements made to law enforcement stricken from evidence presented at trial. Magione’s defense team certainly don’t want to hear Luigi talking to New York police about doing the ugly deed to protect the public from United Health Care unethical practices. Mangione told Pa. Correctional official Tomas Rivers that he “wanted to make a statement to the public,” getting to the exact motive for the targeted assassination. Rivers admitted to discussing the difference between private and public health care with Luigi while in custody. Magione’s attorneys want all prima facie evidence stricken from the record.
Magione was treated with watching himself on a large video display in the courtroom stalking then opening fire on Thomson in Midtown Manhattan. No judge would restrict prima facie evidence collected at the crime scene, including candy wrapper with Luigi’s DNA confirmed. When it comes to the 3D gun, loaded magazine, silencer and personal diary found in his backpack the judge is supposed to agree that it’s inadmissible evidence? Pennsylvania police had all the probable cause needed to search a dangerous killer’s possessions for his their own safety, having nothing to do with Miranda rights. When Luigi was apprehended at the Altoona McDonalds, there was already an all-points bulletin for his arrest characterizing him as armed-and-dangerous. What were police supposed to do, ignore the all-points bulletin? Magione was a cold blooded killer fleeting from the law.
Mangione’s legal team is fresh off a victory of sorts in September getting two terrorism charges tossed out in New York’s Supreme Court. Magione still faces second-degree murder, something strange because what constitutes first-degree? No one could have planned out Thomson’s cold blooded killing better than Mangione, methodically stalking him, lying in wait and gunning him down. If that’s no first-degree murder then what is? Magione faces life without the possibility of parole in state court and the possible death penalty in federal court. Whatever evidence police collected in Altoona, it was perfectly legitimate given that he was armed-and-dangerous. What were police supposed to do, ignore the all-points bulletin identifying the fleeing killer armed as to the teeth. Defense attorney’s are pulling every trick in the book to strike key evidence from the record.
Pulling out every trick in the books, no judge is going to go for Mangione’s sophomoric defense motions, trying to get prima facie evidence tossed out. Altoona police did nothing wrong responding to an all points bulletin broadcasting that Mangione was armed and dangerous. What were police supposed to do get a warrant before Luigi put a bullet in their heads? Finding a 3D gun, silencer, loaded magazine and personal diary were not confidential or classified materials but relevant facts related to Luigi’s cold blooded murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thomson. How New York’s District Attorney charges the special circumstance of lying in wait, stalking and premeditated murder as second-degree murder in anyone’s guess. If anyone deserves the death penalty or life without parole it’s Luigi fmor his carefully planned, political-motivated assassination.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
