Photo: Getty Images North America
The pre-trial evidence hearing has begun for Luigi Mangione, the suspected triggerman who gunned down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street exactly one year ago Thursday. At the center of the hearing is whether or not the bag Mangione had on him, as well as its contents, when he was found in an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonalds at the time of his arrest can be admitted as evidence. The defense contends they can’t, as cops appeared to search the bag before they read Mangione his Miranda rights. Jeffrey Lichtman is a high-profile defense attorney and host of the podcast “Beyond the Legal Limit”; he told 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning that he thinks Mangione is probably going to prison for the rest of his life, though the failure to follow procedure makes it tougher for the government to prove its case.
Lichtman explained to host Larry Mendte that Mangione should have had his Miranda rights read to him before being questioned; since real-life events happened the other way around, his bag and its contents should be dismissed as evidence. “What they were doing is they were questioning him; they should have read him the rights immediately once they refused to let him leave. I suspect, if Luigi wanted to stand up at that point when they knew that it was him and they were questioning him, there’s no question in my mind that they would have stopped him from leaving. So the search [and] all the answers that he gave after that without reading Miranda should be suppressed, and that all led to the arrest which led to them seizing the bag which had the gun and the cash and the writing and all the other stuff all in there, so that should also be suppressed.”
Lichtman also touched on the legality of President Trump’s use of the military blowing up suspected drug boats as a message to Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro: “These are kind of odd times, Larry… you’ve got boats being blown up on the water that are coming from Venezuela purportedly with drugs loaded on them, and then the next day you’ve got the former Honduran president who was convicted of being a massive drug dealer and getting a 40-year sentence- he’s pardoned by President Trump, so these are confusing times, is what I’ll say in terms of what the government’s thinking [is].”
Photo Credit: Getty Images