Defense attorneys for alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione said Thursday in a new court filing that the murder indictment a state grand jury returned against him should be dismissed due to double jeopardy and other alleged violations.
The indictment should be dismissed “because concurrent state and federal prosecutions violate the Double Jeopardy Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause and Mr. Mangione’s constitutional rights against self-incrimination, to meaningfully defend himself, to a fair and impartial jury and to the effective assistance of counsel,” defense attorneys wrote.
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said in the filing that “prosecutorial one-upmanship” resulted in Mangione facing state and federal charges in New York and separate charges in Pennsylvania.
Under the Double Sovereignty doctrine, the Double Jeopardy clause doesn’t apply in this case tho. Hence, you can be charged for the same offense twice in both stage and federal court.
I read that, and then I read that it’s more complicated than we might assume it is, so that’s not always true. Obviously, the defense feels the same.
You know, I thought that too at one point, but if the defendant’s lawyer is trying to use double jeopardy to get this incredibly high profile, publicly scrutinized case thrown out, we should just sit down, shut up, and listen to the professionals
I’m not saying I agree with the doctrine; in fact I think it’s unjust and would prefer it being tossed, though I seriously doubt he has any chance of succeeding on this claim, especially with the current SCOTUS. And I doubt the state’s lawyers are that incompetent as to ignore it.
It’s likely just a tactic to set him up for an appeal later. The only reason you can appeal a case is if you can show that you weren’t given a fair trial.
So this is his lawyers going “you’re probably going to be railroaded and found guilty, so let’s at least ensure you have as many avenues for appeal as possible. If we force the courts to officially put it into record that you have to defend both trials at the same time, you can argue that your attorneys weren’t able to effectively do so, and therefore your constitutional right to an attorney was violated.”
Right, sure. At which point, pointing out that “double jeopardy doesn’t apply” is kind of just needless pedantry.
I mean, it doesn’t apply. That is already pretty firmly established by precedent. But again, this is simply getting the courts to officially acknowledge that the prosecutors are pushing ahead even though they know the lawyers are stretched thin.
Nah fuck em, we all know he did it.