Attorneys for Luigi Mangione asked a judge to stop federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against their client, saying the U.S. government “intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt.”
The motion filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the death penalty to “carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Mangione, 26, who faces state murder and terrorism charges in New York, along with federal murder and stalking charges, is accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year in New York City.
I am against the death penalty too. I absolutely agree with your reasoning, but it’s not my primary motivating factor. For me, as callous as it may be, I’d rather that taxpayers not foot the bill for the legal process involved with trying to put someone on death row, and then the subsequent legal process of flipping the switch, pulling the trigger, injecting the needle… whatever. The expense to the taxpayers is of a greater cost than lifetime incarceration.
The death penalty is hypocritical too. I cannot get on board with the lack of logic surrounding, “Killing someone is a crime, and you did that so now we’re going to kill you.”
Your last point hinges on a false equivalency. Imprisonment is also a crime, but we let the government imprison dangerous people for public safety. It’s different when the government does it.
Obviously the death penalty is a different situation, but your logic doesn’t hold up in either case.
To be clear, I don’t support the death penalty. But people on the Internet seem to hate it when I play devil’s advocate to sharpen an argument.