Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty for allegedly killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024, a federal district judge ruled Friday, dealing a blow to US prosecutors who were adamant about pursuing the ultimate sentence.
I do agree with you that most likely he did it. But that doesn’t necessarily make him guilty. Everyone in the jury pool needs to understand that simple fact, the guilty/not guilty verdict is ultimately decided by the jury and not by the facts nor the law.
And even if they think that he did it, they can decide to ignore that for any reason, like deciding it was justified. Jury nullification is not an abstract concept, is not illegal, and clearly happens more than prosecutors want to admit when you start looking at similar politically charged incidents.
I do agree with you that most likely he did it. But that doesn’t necessarily make him guilty. Everyone in the jury pool needs to understand that simple fact, the guilty/not guilty verdict is ultimately decided by the jury and not by the facts nor the law.
And even if they think that he did it, they can decide to ignore that for any reason, like deciding it was justified. Jury nullification is not an abstract concept, is not illegal, and clearly happens more than prosecutors want to admit when you start looking at similar politically charged incidents.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about.