Luigi Mangione, suspected of murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, in New York, appeared this Monday in Manhattan court for the reading of the 11 state charges against him, the main ones being first and second murder. degree and terrorism. The young man, who has pleaded innocent, faces in parallel another federal accusation that could be punished, if found guilty, with the maximum penalty, although the State of New York has not carried out death sentences for decades.
This Monday’s hearing was the first opportunity for Mangione, 26, to formally respond to the accusations of the Manhattan prosecutor’s office. The suspect of murdering the executive of the main US health insurance company on December 4 in the heart of Manhattan was arrested in a town in Pennsylvania five days later and extradited to New York last Thursday. Since then he has been admitted to a crowded Brooklyn jail where rapper Sean is also held. Diddy Combs.
Mangione, for many a kind of popular hero for exposing the draconian conditions of health insurance – a billion-dollar business in the United States – faces 11 charges in New York, including one of first-degree murder with the consideration of “act of terror” and two of second-degree murder, in addition to other minors for possession of weapons and falsification of documents. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has confirmed that it has coordinated with federal authorities for Mangione’s appearance today. Both causes will run in parallel.
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo expressed concern during the hearing that the high profile of the case would undermine her client’s chances of having a fair trial. The lawyer specifically cited the arrival of Mangione to Manhattan, by helicopter, and his little parade, dressed in the orange jumpsuit of the prisoners and surrounded by thirty heavily armed police officers, an unprecedented display to which was added the presence of the city’s mayor. , Democrat Eric Adams, in the background, but clearly visible.
“This young man is being treated like a human ping pong ball by two opposing jurisdictions.” [la estatal y la federal] “They are treating it like a show,” the lawyer stated. The next date in Manhattan District Court will be February 21. Last Thursday, upon his arrival in New York, the federal criminal complaint of murder with a firearm, two counts of harassment and a crime of illegal possession of weapons were revealed.
Dressed informally and in shackles, Mangione has appeared calm, with his head bowed at times and without the outbursts of aggressiveness that he showed last week after being arrested in Altoona (Pennsylvania), where he was identified by the waiter at a MacDonald’s in the what he ate During his visit to the Blair County courthouse, he shouted nonsense phrases at reporters and tried to get away from the police officers who were leading him.
Mangione’s appearance today in New York caused excitement, with the room packed with people—two dozen women and six men—to witness the development of the hearing. If the act he allegedly committed by shooting Thompson in the back in cold blood provoked a wave of sympathy among citizens dissatisfied with the insurance companies, his arrival in New York on Thursday, staged in the aforementioned promenade that was broadcast live by television cameras, has ended up making it a symbol as popular as it is macabre on the Internet and in a large part of public opinion.
