The cause seems predetermined. We have footage of the murder, the murder weapon, prints, fake IDs and a motive. However, Luigi Mangione could avoid prison or the death penalty.
Accused of having assassinated the president of the country’s largest insurer, Magione embodies the anger of millions of people.
Despite improved health care coverage since the March 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), health care in the United States remains expensive and private insurers are often singled out.
How, faced with the burden of proof, can Mangione get away with it?
Insanity
Several legal experts spoke about the defense that Mangione’s lawyer should present. Spontaneously, almost all of them identified insanity as the only viable option.
Faced with charges in New York State as well as federally, Mangione could now only count on his lawyer’s ability to humanize him.
We would then have to dig into his past, mainly his medical past, to demonstrate that there was a chain of events, a series of events that could explain such a violent action.
Cancellation by jury
If advancing insanity in no way guarantees that Mangione will escape, the other possible avenue is more marginal. It is essentially based on the great popularity enjoyed by the alleged killer.
As astonishing as it may seem, many people have more sympathy for the killer than for the victim. While people are usually encouraged not to take the law into their own hands, Mangione is considered to have done the right thing.
How is this positive perception linked to the fate that will be reserved for the alleged murderer? Because it will be tried before a jury and the jury could opt for annulment.
The selection of the members of this jury will be, more than ever, crucial.
If I am the first to recognize that we must not encourage and glorify violence and murder, who is not at least outraged by the behavior of certain insurers who stretch deadlines or use all the loopholes at their disposal?
Luigi Mangione’s lawyer does not have the right to present to the jury members the possibility of annulment, it is against the law, but he could play on the anger and indignation of the jury members.
Normally, jury nullification, the acquittal of the accused, is based on a weaker element or elements of the evidence despite the abundance of other evidence.
However, it is not impossible to imagine this being achieved as a form of civil disobedience. Behind closed doors, who knows if members of the jury will not want to go there with a resounding “fuck you» to an unjust and cruel system that favors the better off.
I hope Mangione is convicted and I wouldn’t bet on his chances, but the proceedings of the trial, starting with jury selection, will be of interest.
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