In New York, Luigi Mangione is seeking permission to have a laptop while in jail, but only for legal purposes related to his trial for the alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. The request is not for communication purposes.
Mangione’s attorneys have formally requested a laptop that would be specifically set up to allow him to access a large amount of case-related documents, videos, and other materials. This provision is similar to arrangements made for other defendants detained in the federal facility where Mangione is currently held.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, responsible for prosecuting Mangione on a rare New York state charge of murder as a terrorist act, has not yet commented on the laptop request. According to Mangione’s legal team, prosecutors are hesitant about granting the laptop, citing concerns that some witnesses may have been threatened.
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Defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote that there’s “no connection to Mr. Mangione for any of said alleged threats.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson in December outside a Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealthcare was about to hold an investor conference. Thompson, who was 50 and had two children in high school, worked for decades within UnitedHealthcare and its parent company.
Mangione, an Ivy League computer science graduate from a Maryland real estate family, has pleaded not guilty to the New York state charges. He also faces a parallel federal case that carries the possibility of the death penalty. He hasn’t entered a plea to the federal charges or to state-level gun possession and other charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested days after Thompson’s death.
Thompson’s killing alarmed the corporate world, where some health insurers hastily switched to remote work or online shareholder meetings.
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But at the same time, the case channeled some Americans’ frustrations with health insurance companies. Mangione’s writings and words on bullets recovered from the scene reflected animus toward health insurers and corporate America, authorities have said.
Some people have lionized the accused killer, donated money to his defense and even flocked to his court appearances. Others, including elected officials, have deplored the praise for what they cast as ideological violence and vigilante justice.
Through his lawyers, Mangione has released a statement thanking supporters.
If he does get a laptop, it would be unable to connect to the internet, run video games or play movies or other entertainment, his lawyers said in Monday’s filing. But it would let him examine, from his jail cell, more than 15,000 pages of documents and thousands of hours of video that prosecutors gathered and were required to turn over to his attorneys.
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Otherwise, he can view the material when meeting with his lawyers. But they say there aren’t enough visiting hours in the day for him to do that and properly help prepare his defense.
