UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot - 12/9 UPDATE: CAUGHT

Jury selection will be a nightmare for the prosecution. "So uh, who here has a negative view of American health insurance?" Anyone in the 18-30 demographic is probably an automatic dismissal too (especially women) lol.

 

2 things at play here. They can't have vigilantes running around which I agree with even if I'm not sympathetic to the victim.

Healthcare and government are going to shut this down because they don't want attention payed to how abhorrent their practices were/are.

The CEO came out with a statement about how UHC will continue to "be there for their patients" and how much Brian Thompson cared about people. No accountability or acknowledgement of their industry leading denial rate in that statement of course nor the stock selloff.

 

I think they're running into the Streisand effect here. By trying to paint this as "terrorism" they're putting this CEO on a pedestal above normal murder. And that's kind of the impetus of this whole thing. Eat the Rich. They're validating the belief that there are a different set of rules and laws for the wealthy.

 

Yeah and the cat seems to be out of the bag as that sentiment now seems to be driving Mangiones cult following even moreso. Thousands of unsolved murders but this one is reeeaaally important....

I suspect it will fade away like everything in this information overloaded ADHD world but not before a couple copycat events

 

Well, "they" can absolutely have vigilantes running around, but they have to be the kind that kill homeless people or protestors/non-protestors 'threatening' property.

 

Did you see that story that the NY governor was floating the idea of a special hotline for CEO types to report threats or crime? They are literally suggesting a special 911 for the oligarch class lol. I really dont know what happens if they just drop the illusion and pretense of equal justice entirely.

 

It could be a risk, but not much of one IMO. If they had only charged 1st degree he could still be convicted of a lesser included offense (2nd degree). That being said, I’m pretty sure they still have him charged with 2nd degree murder along with first and 2nd degree w/terrorism so the jury would decide amongst those (or not guilty as unlikely as that is).

 

Not likely. The jury would be given approved lesser included offenses to consider when deliberating their verdict. If they don't think first is appropriate they would next consider second. I don't think they would have to go beyond second, this killing clearly qualifies...the evidence is overwhelming assuming the jury is satisfied with identity.

 

Interesting. I always assumed you had to choose and go for that. I never realized you could "pursue" multiple options and scale back.

 

Define "an act of terror" for me please.

 

This is the whole problem with employing it as a concept, its completely flexible!

 

Mangione was clearly trying to send a message to powerful people and the fact he chose Manhattan's financial district to do so is close enough to NY officials to be considered an act of terror. An act of terror needn't kill dozens of people to be an act of terror. What Mangione did could easily breed a copycat run where people who are lost or mentally ill end up "taking a stand." Prosecutors can't treat this like a normal every day NY killing and rightfully so.

Mangione's rationale for doing what he did is essentially Al-Qaeda and Ted Zaczynsk's rationale for doing what they did. Clearly, a terror charge is valid.

 

Not a chance in hell he walks.

 

ding ding ding ding ding

 

This right here is why Bragg is going to double-down on the terror charge, among other reasons you've already noted.

 

No Alvin Bragg fan, but his office probably thought all of this through pretty thoroughly before they leveled the charges.

 

In a typical criminal case, you normally only charge murder as a single count. The exception would be if there were entirely different theories of prosecution for a single murder such as premeditated first degree murder and felony murder rule murder, for example That's cleaner and less likely to confuse the jury. The jury is always going to be instructed on lesser included offenses on a murder case, no need to charge the lessers separately. Florida makes it super easy. Florida's jury instructions actually list Category 1 lessers that are normally almost always given and Category 2 lessers that are given if the evidence at trial supports them.