Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old man accused of shooting in the back last December Brian Thompson, the top executive of United Healthcare's insurance company, will not be prosecuted for terrorism. Mangione, who, according to TV camera footage, repeatedly shot Brian Thompson in the back, whom he did not know, outside his hotel in Manhattan, still faces state charges in New York for second-degree murder, as well as other minor offenses in several states for the possession and use of firearms and the details of his escape.
The decision by Judge Gregory Carro, who considers the terrorism allegations "legally insufficient", is a setback for the Prosecution's strategy, which presented the case as "a terrifying, well-planned, and selective murder, aimed at causing shock, attention, and intimidation." Especially in New York, "widely recognized as the world capital of the media."
But the judge did not find solid the argument that Mangione sought to intimidate or terrorize healthcare industry employees. Instead, he listened to the Defense's arguments, which argued that terrorism offenses, as defined in New York state law, involve attacks against multiple civilians, not shooting at a single individual. "While the Prosecution places great emphasis on the accused's ideological motive, there is no indication in the statute that a murder committed for ideological reasons (in this case, the accused's apparent desire to draw attention to what he perceived as inequalities or greed within the U.S. healthcare system), fits within the definition of terrorism without establishing the necessary element of intent to intimidate or coerce," wrote Judge Gregory Carro in his decision.
Mangione still faces federal charges, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. By avoiding terrorism and first-degree murder charges in state court, Mangione could potentially avoid a life sentence without parole at best. His lawyers will now try to have the judge suppress some of the prosecution's evidence, such as his initial statements to the police. This decision will be made in December when the date for the next hearing is set. They also want either the federal or state authorities to drop the case because, they have argued, it is impossible to prepare two defenses simultaneously. They also oppose the idea of the state prosecution being tried first, which carries a less severe penalty. But so far, the judge has been less receptive to this request citing precedents.
The news will be a cause for celebration among the numerous fans of the young man, who overnight became a popular icon, the subject of all kinds of videos, jokes, and monologues, and whose face on t-shirts, mugs, or flyers has generated a lot of money. For hundreds of thousands of people, in a reasoning that trivializes life and death, he is a kind of hero, a people's avenger against insurers and their leaders, who hold their clients' lives in their hands with their decisions on which patients to cover and under what circumstances.
In recent months, Mangione has received hundreds if not thousands of letters from admirers in the federal prison in Brooklyn where he is incarcerated. His lawyers have created a website to provide information about his case and raise funds, and to date, thousands of anonymous donors, fans, and supporters have contributed almost 1.5 million dollars.
Many of these fans were in the courtroom on Tuesday, dressed in green, with encouraging banners or even t-shirts with Mangione's face
Tlyer Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative influencerCharlie Kirk last week at a university in Utah, joked with his friends about Mangione's case. After committing the crime and while hiding in his town, over 300 kilometers from where he shot Kirk, Robinson had several joking exchanges with his Discord chat group. When the FBI released surveillance camera images that led to the shooter's identification, his acquaintances noted the resemblance in that group, and one of them, unaware that he was indeed the perpetrator of the shots, told him above all not to go to a McDonald's. A reference to the fact that Mangione, after fleeing Manhattan, was arrested while having breakfast at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania. There were also references and jokes in those messages about not carrying a manifesto, another nod to the handwritten material seized during Mangione's arrest.
Robinson apparently engraved references to video games, elements of popular culture, or the word "antifascism" on the bullets found alongside the murder weapon. Just like Mangione, who wrote words like "delay" or "deny" on his own bullets, in what seemed to be a reference to the book "Delay Deny Defend" that denounces insurers' practices to save costs by denying their clients' requests, denying treatments. There is currently a lot of merchandise for sale on different online platforms like Amazon or eBay with these expressions.