Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg surprised some observers this week when he announced a first-degree murder charge against Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League computer whiz accused of assassinating a health insurance executive in an ambush attack outside a New York City hotel.
Under New York law, which differs in this regard from many other states, second-degree murder is the normal charge for a premeditated slaying. First-degree charges have additional requirements, such as the victim being a police officer or a murder involving torture.
In Mangione's case, prosecutors allege the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was an act of terror, and legal experts tell Fox News Digital that could be a stretch.
"I just don’t see a jury convicting him of the first-degree murder committed in furtherance of terrorism," said Lara Yeretsian, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney who has been following the case. "The enormous public support could not have been anticipated. In fact, in light of the public support he has, this charge or overfiling could backfire on the prosecution."
The terror charge — and surprise federal stalking charges — prompted pushback from Mangione's defense lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo.
"This is a highly unusual situation we find ourselves in," Friedman Agnifilo told a federal judge in Manhattan Thursday after the Justice Department revealed its own case against Mangione, which she described as contradictory.
"I want to note that the theory of the murder charge in the Manhattan DA case seems to be in conflict with and in opposite to the theory that is here being brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office," she said in court. "There, they talk about terrorism and potentially influencing a group of people. This is stalking an individual. That's what the theory is here. Those are two completely different theories. These seem like different cases."
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While the federal charges open the door for the death penalty, which New York doesn't have, they accuse Mangione of stalking, murder and federal firearms offenses with no mention of terrorism.
"This isn’t your typical terrorism case, so I understand why the defense is saying that Bragg is overcharging the case, like he did with [President-elect] Trump and [Daniel] Penny," said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor whose Los Angeles-based private practice is often at odds with insurance companies in court.
"It also supports the argument that Mangione is being treated differently because he killed a CEO instead of an ‘ordinary’ victim."
Linda Kenney Baden, a prominent New York defense attorney who visited the site of Thompson's murder just hours after it took place, said she believes both the state-level terror case and any federal attempt to impose the death penalty would involve overcharging.
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"Terrorism to me is such a stretch," she told Fox News Digital. "I think when you try that case, quite frankly, you're gonna say, 'He wasn't trying to create overwhelming terrorism. He was trying to get revenge for what the insurance companies had done to the little person.'"
She said she believes the Justice Department filed federal charges for two reasons.
"One, you have a very important person in terms of how the country runs and corporations," she said, referring to the victim. "And, two, they don't trust Alvin Bragg."
Earlier this month, Bragg's office failed to get a conviction in another case that critics saw as overcharged. After the DA's line prosecutors asked a court to dismiss a manslaughter charge against Marine veteran Daniel Penny, jurors found him not guilty of a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely.
The homeless man had barged onto a subway car and was screaming death threats when Penny intervened, putting him in a headlock from behind. Neely, who was high on drugs and had schizophrenia and a genetic condition known as sickle cell trait, died.
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Kenney Baden also took issue with the way police paraded Mangione out of a Manhattan heliport after his extradition from Pennsylvania, likening it to a dramatic scene from a "Batman" movie.
"Yes, he's killed. Yes, it was awful. Yes, it was an assassination, but is his life worth any more than everybody else?" she asked. "How many murders were there yesterday in New York City? Or the last two weeks in New York City? Do we see that kind of showboating for their killers? I'm sure the family members of the people killed in New York City for the past two weeks aren't happy."
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Mangione is due back in court next month.
Edward Kim, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Thursday the state murder case would proceed before a federal case. Mangione also faces firearms and fake ID charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested by the Altoona Police Department after a McDonald's worker called 911, recognizing him from a wanted poster during an interstate manhunt.
"Luigi Mangione allegedly conducted the carefully premeditated and targeted execution of Brian Thompson to incite national debates," Assistant FBI Director James Dennehy said Thursday. "This alleged plot demonstrates a cavalier attitude towards humanity – deeming murder an appropriate recourse to satiate personal grievances."
