How Luigi Mangione’s legal defense could take shape

Forensic and ballistics evidence that police say links the accused killer of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson to the crime scene will make it harder for his lawyers to mount a defense, former prosecutors and other legal experts say.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested Monday in Pennsylvania after a multi-state manhunt that ended at a McDonalds in the city of Altoona.

New York authorities say fingerprints and shell casings link him to the crime scene.

His lawyer, Thomas Dickey, earlier told local media that he “has yet to see any evidence” implicating his client.

He said Mangione would plead not guilty to the charges he faces in Pennsylvania, including the firearms charges.

In New York, he has been charged with second-degree murder for Mr. Thompson’s murder, and it is unclear how he would plead. He is currently being held in a Pennsylvania state prison where he is fighting extradition to face the murder charge. The legal battle over his extradition could take more than a month to resolve, officials said.

But legal experts told the BBC that his efforts to challenge his extradition to New York are unlikely to succeed. However, they could offer his defense an insight into the state’s evidence against him.

“I don’t even know if that’s him,” his lawyer, Mr. Dickey, said in a recent interview with US media outlet NewsNation, referring to images of Thompson’s killer.

“We’re going to test those waters and give the government a chance to present some evidence,” he said.

If he is extradited to New York to face the murder charge, Mitchell Epner, a New York-based lawyer and former prosecutor, told the BBC there were broadly two approaches Mr Mangione could take. could adopt if he pleads innocent.

“The number one defense is ‘it wasn’t me’ and the number two defense is ‘it was me, but I shouldn’t be punished’ because of X,” he said.

According to the NYPD, Mr. Mangione was found with a weapon similar to the murder weapon, a silencer and fake identification, as well as three handwritten pages that they believe suggest a possible motive.

Epner said the publicly known evidence so far means denying responsibility is “out the window.”

Another New York lawyer, the criminal defense lawyer and professor Dmitriy Shakhnevich, said Mr. Mangione’s lawyer could also, in theory, argue that an impaired “mental state” makes him unfit to stand trial.

“If a judge determines that they misunderstand, or don’t understand, what’s going on in court, basically the case won’t go forward,” he said.

“He will be institutionalized for a period of time until he is deemed fit, which may never be.”

That defense, Shakhnevich added, is different from an insanity plea, in which his lawyers could argue that he is “not responsible for his actions because of some mental defect.”

“That could also find you not guilty, because you won’t satisfy the elements of the crime,” he said. “But again, he doesn’t get off free. He would be institutionalized for a period, assuming the defense is successful.”

The start of Mr. Mangione’s legal battles has prompted anonymous donors to contribute thousands of dollars to his defense through online fundraisers.

It comes as some online have shared support for the suspect and anger against the health insurance industry. The New York City Police Department has also warned that some healthcare executives are potentially in danger because of a “hit list” posted online after Mr Thompson’s murder.

In a bulletin, the NYPD said several viral posts included the names and salaries of other insurance executives. Mock wanted signs featuring some executives have also been posted in Manhattan.

Mr. Mangione allegedly had grievances with the industry in general.

Timothy Gallagher, a former FBI agent and managing director of Nardello and Co, a global investigative firm, said the current climate means “the threat of a copycat is real.”

“There are people out there who have grievances and are watching the amount of press and attention that is being given to the defendants,” he said.

Gallagher said there has been an “abundance of support from the dark corners of the Internet” for anti-corporate causes.

“I fear that this may fuel further attacks,” he said.