A judge on Monday dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione in New York state’s case over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson but he kept the state’s second-degree murder charges against the Ivy League graduate.
Mangione’s lawyers argued that the New York case and a parallel federal death penalty prosecution amounted to double jeopardy. But Judge Gregory Carro rejected that argument, saying it would be premature to make such a determination.
It’s Mangione’s first court appearance in the state case since February. The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate has attracted a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations with the health insurance industry. Dozens of his supporters showed up to his last hearing, many wearing the Luigi video game character’s green color as a symbol of solidarity. His April arraignment in the federal case drew a similar outpouring.
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Over the past several years, prosecutors at the Federal and State level have trended towards “overcharging” their cases leading to judges questioning or as in this case, dismissing some of the charges. The best example were the January 6th cases where many offenders were charged by an over-zealous DOJ with violating an arcane “records retention” provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a law passed after the Enron scandal. Prosecutors used it to charge hundreds of January 6th rioters for “obstructing an official proceeding”, an interpretation the Supreme Court found to be well beyond the intent of the statute. Now, over-zealous DOJ prosecutors are threatening to use “conspiracy” and “RICO” statutes against Democratic party and progressive groups in relation to the Kirk assasinaton by a deranged student in Utah.
By streching the limits of existing laws, presecutors (on both ends of the political spectrum) end up delaying the indictments and trials of criminals and often result in courts dismissing some or all of the charges.