Luigi Mangione plans to assert a psychiatric defense at his state murder trial, claiming he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance when he gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a judge said Wednesday. It wouldn’t absolve him of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing, but could free him from prison sooner.
If a jury accepts that defense, the panel would convict Mangione of manslaughter and he would face up to 25 years in prison. Alternatively, the jury could reject the extreme emotional disturbance defense and convict him of murder, which carries a potential life sentence. That defense isn’t available in his federal case.
He should roll the dice on jury nullification instead. Hell, claiming self defense from a rigged system of pain and death for profit could be gambled on … out of 12 jurors you just need one to be fed up enough with the Healthcare system to hang the whole jury. If he happened to get a not guilty verdict on some kind of creative self defense argument … that would be a precedence that changes the nation.
seems like a sane person to me…
“allegedly gunned down”
FTFY
In an insane world, some something let him go.
I instantly had a good response in my head and then I saw that shitbag who said to lock him up and lost it. Thanks, dick. You made me mad twice.
cough jury nullification
The irony of claiming health issues as the reason the United Healthcare CEO was shot is hilarious.
…have they even proven that Luigi did it?
Unless they have, effectively admitting to it seems like a fucking stupid idea to me.
They won’t need to prove Luigi did it. Luigi is confessing here. That’s exactly what Luigi is doing here - admitting he did it.
That’s the whole point of an affirmative defense. Self-defense is another example of an affirmative defense. You say in court, “I do not contest the facts of the case. I indeed pulled a trigger on a gun, fired a bullet at someone, and killed them. The facts of my actions are not in dispute. However, what I did was OK because it was self defense, which I will prove for reasons X, Y, and Z.”
By taking a mental health defense, Luigi’s team are admitting that he was the one that pulled the trigger. It’s a confession, but one that says “I did it, but I shouldn’t be held responsible for it.”
Now, maybe some might still cling to the idea that the whole thing is a complete frame job. But the fact that they’re going for the insanity defense shows the evidence is probably pretty damning. Insanity defenses rarely work. And in the rare cases they do, they usually result in people serving longer terms in a mental hospital than they would in prison. Insanity defense are nearly impossible to succeed and are anything but a get-out-of-jail-free card.
I hope he succeeds on the insanity defense claim. But at this point, it’s pretty clear that the defense is conceding the point that Luigi did it. They aren’t going to try and claim in court that evidence is fake or planted.
With the obvious caveat that I’m not a lawyer - if Luigi’s defence thinks this is the best strategy, then I think the case is as good as lost; he may as well plead guilty and stop wasting the court’s time. He won’t get any clemency - he (allegedly) killed a wealthy person.
If you can show the defendant did any planning then made a significant effort to cover their tracks it shows rational thought and knowledge that it was a crime.
Obviously I am just an observer with only the media to get case information from but it’s always seemed pretty fishy to me
Me too. I don’t think he looks enough like the guy at the bank counter(iirc) to be sure they’re the same person, and the fact that they only found the gun after taking the backpack back to the station is extremely suspicious.
My conspiracy theory is that, after the near-universal adulation of the killer, they’ve made Luigi a scapegoat in order to prevent any more killing of wealthy ghouls.
His fucking eyebrows grew 3 sizes in one night like the fucking grinch’s heart. When he was arrested he had two Mario moustache unibrows over his eyes and the security cam perp had Legolas eyebrows.
Not just the eyebrows, but the bank shot also had someone with a more angular face, their cheek bones looked different. In fact I thought the shooter originally from the bank picture was a woman. And was entirely surprised when they “caught” a man.
Admittedly lighting and perspective can play a huge role in making someone look different, but still, I’m not convinced Mangione was the shooter.
They would have picked an old black person and/or communist and/or muslim, not a cute white dude basicly anyone would fuck.
There’s no way it was him, he was hanging out with me at the time.
Exactly, I’m incredibly disappointed by this news considering how horribly botched the investigation was
Ima trust the million dollar legal team over what’d make a good movie.
The US legal system is incredibly fucked. You take plea deals even though you’re innocent because if you don’t, the judge and prosecutor are so biased they’ll lock you up with hardly a shed of evidence, or the legal costs will bankrupt you and your family, or you’ll spend years behind bars before a sentence is decided on. So he might just have to take a tactical approach because “there was a gun” and the jury would probably convict, anyway - because of course they’re chosen for their biases, too.
Dude what good is a million dollar legal teams opinion when you have random half assed comments?! I mean, their personal opinion is something about photos being shady. So there! Checkmate.
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yeah!
So you’re okay with random acts of literal murder?
How many people do health insurers need to harm before idiots like you learn your place?
Of insurance company executives? Yes. (also, not random)
It’s self defense
Random?
I wouldn’t say random. He had a clear motive. He’s not some serial killer.
Welcome to the troops, that’s what we’re all about!
claiming he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance when he gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a judge said Wednesday.
I’d rather see the argument that it was the only logical response to an illogical environment.
It’s not that “everyone’s going crazy” these days, it’s that corporations and oligarchs aren’t withholding their end of the social contract, and forcing the cognitive dissonance on everyone that we still need to follow it will continue to lead to events like this.
It’s bigger than Luigi and whatever that CEOs name was.
This is just how people will react when they no longer believe society has their backs. And modern American society 100% does not have anyone’s back except oligarchs and corporations.
But the effect of the shooter’s actions is quantifiable and resulted in claims getting approved and a shit ton of lives saved.
Like, that’s going to be the big sticking point of this trial, it’s a trolley problem jury trial. I still think he’s getting off, even if they can prove it was him.
Tl;dr - Luigi’s not crazy, it’s the rest of the world that’s gone mad.
(Shout out to Wonko the Sane)
I just had this conversation with my therapist where I said I don’t think that I’m necessarily depressed, but am being acted upon by the men who move only in dimly lit halls and determine my future for me, and I feel distant from others, and don’t do enough fun things. And she was like, yeah, probably.
We need to guillotine the sociopath class.
Luigi already did one, so what are you waiting for?
Talking big about revolutions and beheading people when you clearly have no intention of actually doing either, is honestly kinda pathetic.
How do you know I am not working on a revolution?
Good on you if you are. Are you?
Are you?
Revolution against capitalism isn’t something I think is possible, they literally have all the money and power in the world and that is not a fight we can win.
Plus they aren’t spending any of their trillions to fix climate change (not that they even could at this point), so what’s the point in fighting for, or even dreaming of, a better future, when the rest of this century is going to involve the deaths of multiple billions of people to drought, famine, technological collapse, bad weather and run away heating.
So instead of spouting hollow platitudes about beheading billiomaires and needing revolutions, I’ve spent my energy elsewhere, mainly by studying climate science and enjoying what little health I have left.
the only sane response to an insane world is to reject it wholeheartedly, possibly by lashing out; it is the most damaged among us who embrace it unreservedly.
I don’t think that’s gonna hold up in court.
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This is a bad defence. I saw Luigi minutes before the incident in a far away location. He’s innocent.
Just reminded me of something I heard on an Ask a Lawyer video recently:
“Some people who aren’t insane plead insanity, and some people who are very insane don’t.”
This is a case where I believe he was driven insane by the bullshit surrounding healthcare.
Given the vast number of people who are currently also suffering from CEO-induced extreme emotional disturbance, the bastards should be shitting their pants in abject terror right now…
The shooting happened over a year ago. I think it’s time to stop dreaming that this will start some sort of revolution. Since the shooting poor people go way poorer, Elon has trillion dollars now, no other attacks happened. All the CEOs simply got better security, they are not terrified right now.
Irresistible impulse. This may be a poor choice by the defense. If I’m on the jury all I can see is reasonable doubt.
Wow, very disappointing. wtf is the point of his high profile high cost lawyer is she’s going this route?
Therefore, he is admitting that he was the shooter?
