Criminal defense attorney Ben Brafman predicted Monday on CNN that alleged UnitedHealthcare assassin Luigi Mangione will waive his extradition rights, later revealing that the “real issue” with a New York City jury will be finding people who don’t support his case.
Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 in Altoona, Pa., in connection with the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He officially challenged his extradition to New York on Dec. 10. On “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” Brafman began by stating that he didn’t believe Mangione would be able to plead insanity, before noting that he didn’t think there was a need to fight his extradition to New York.
“I think he’s going to waive extradition because the standard from one state to the next is do you have the right person? If you do, then they allow extradition. I think there’s no point in fighting extradition. You know, I would save my battles for something I can win, and he clearly cannot win this battle,” Brafman said.
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CNN host Jake Tapper went on to question the criminal defense attorney about the jury process for the potential trial, asking if he believed it would be possible to find jurors who didn’t already have a “set opinion” about the case.
“I don’t think that’s going to be the difficulty,” Brafman said. “I think the difficulty for the prosecution is this man is apparently ironically turned into a type of folk hero. You have posters up throughout Manhattan supporting him. You have people calling in, and social media suggests that there are a lot of people who had similar experiences with the healthcare industry.”
“I was frustrated, as he apparently was. I think that the real issue is going to be finding a jury that knows about this case but has not yet formed an opinion. If I were trying this case, I think the issue would be, do I look for a manslaughter compromise verdict that will save him from 25 to life? There might be a mandatory minimum, but I think that would be the appropriate verdict in this case if you really believe that he suffered from extreme emotional disturbance,” Brafman said.
Support for Mangione quickly surfaced online following the reveal of his identity, with users circulating photos from his social and some commenting on how “hot” he appeared. Despite pushback against the public support for the alleged 26-year-old assassin, some shops on e-commerce platform called Etsy have begun selling shirts, cups and Christmas ornaments featuring an image likened to Mangione.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/CNN/”The Lead With Jake Tapper”)
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