Tag Archives: murder trial

The Verdict Should Be Obvious

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I realize that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, but what happens when your crime is filmed by security cameras? We may be about to find out.

On December 4, 2024, Brian Thompson, the CEO of United HeathCare was shot and killed in Manhattan. Luigi Mangione was arrested for the crime and is currently on trial in New York City.

On Monday, The New York Post reported:

Jurors at Luigi Mangione’s murder trial will get to see the 3D-printed pistol and alleged “manifesto” found inside his backpack, a judge ruled Monday — handing prosecutors a key legal win.

Altoona, Pa. cops followed appropriate legal protocol when searching the accused assassin’s bag at the police station after nabbing him for the December 2024 execution of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro found.

The weapon was discovered inside the 28-year-old Mangione’s bag after his arrest at an Altoona McDonald’s, which followed a dramatic five-day manhunt.

Prosecutors will also be able to show Mangione’s journal, in which the University of Pennsylvania grad mused about killing the “greedy” CEO to denounce an industry that “extracts human life force for money.”

But Carro separately blocked other evidence — including a loaded magazine, Mangione’s wallet and passport and a computer chip hidden inside a cardboard sleeve — that police obtained from Mangione’s bag before getting a warrant.

Police breached Mangione’s rights by searching the knapsack without a warrant even though it was outside of the accused killer’s reach — where officers did not need to search it to protect themselves or the public, the judge found.

“I find that the search of the backpack at the McDonald’s was an improper warrantless search,” the judge said from the bench as Mangione sat at the defense table, handcuffed and wearing a blue suit, during a brief hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The article notes the comments of the Mangione supporters outside the courtroom:

Several supporters proudly displayed press badges granted to them by the New York City Mayor’s Office — and were not shy in expressing their admiration for the accused killer.

“I’m saying f–k Brian Thompson. I don’t give a flying f–k he died,” Ashley Rojas, one such city-accredited “press” member, told reporters outside the courthouse.

Their comments are frightening. What ever happened to respect for life?

The Case Is Falling Apart In A Trial That Should Never Have Happened

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On Sunday, The New York Post posted an article about the murder trial of Daniel Penny that is taking place in New York. As you remember, Daniel Penny is being tried for the subway murder of Jordan Neely in May 2023.

The article reports:

On Friday, the defense rested in the Daniel Penny trial, leaving many observers to ask what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was thinking in pursuing this case.

Over the course of the second-degree manslaughter trial, Bragg’s prosecutors tried to sell the narrative that the Marine vet overreacted and behaved “recklessly” when he restrained Jordan Neely on that F train back in May 2023.

But a host of prosecution witnesses, Penny’s fellow passengers, knocked massive holes in that tale, as one after another veteran subway rider described how terror-stricken they felt while trapped in the train car with the angry, unstable, threatening Neely.

One woman said she “was scared s–tless” by Neely’s behavior and recalled him yelling: “I don’t give a damn. I will kill a motherf—er. I’m ready to die.”

She stuck around after the ordeal to thank Penny for defending her and everyone else in the car that day.

Another, a high school student, said she was “so nervous” that she feared she “was going to pass out,” and said she didn’t hear other passengers’ warning to Penny to let go of Neely during the struggle.

The article concludes:

Closing arguments begin Dec. 2; it’s hard to think the jury will need to deliberate long.

It’s Bragg and his team who’ll have to put in time figuring out why they took such a weak case to trial.

There are some real questions in my mind as to how New York is making decisions regarding who to let off for crimes committed and who to put on trial. It seems to me that Daniel Penny is the least of New York’s worries as far as criminals are concerned.