Terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione dismissed

[Grins]

BBC:

A judge in New York state has dismissed two terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
…
Although prosecutors argued that writings left by Mangione demonstrated a terrorism motive, the judge said they failed to show that the suspect intended to put political pressure on the government or terrorise the general population – key provisions of New York’s terrorism law which was passed in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

[Greg_In_SF]

1. Only the State

charges, not the federal charges.

[LeftInTX]

2. There are no federal terrorism charges. The feds do not have domestic terrorism charges, only international.

The feds are charging him with murder and a type of federal cyberstalking. (And possibly a firearms charge...can't remember on that one)

Even the Boston Bomber, nor Timothy McVeigh were charged with terrorism.

Luigi would not qualify for international terrorism charges. Almost everyone who is charged has foreign connections and most are not US citizens. It's got a pretty high bar.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Deadline Legal Blog-Why a New York state judge dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione

Justice Gregory Carro deemed two terrorism-related murder charges as legally insufficient but approved a remaining, straightforward murder charge.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/luigi-mangione-terrorism-charges-dismissed-murder-new-york-rcna231643

Luigi Mangione has gotten two of the murder counts against him dismissed in his New York state case but still faces another one, on top of federal charges that carry the possibility of capital punishment. In the state case, Justice Gregory Carro ruled Tuesday that it was legally insufficient to bring two terrorism-related murder charges but said that remaining charges can go forward, including a count of intentional murder.

So it’s a qualified win for Mangione, 27, that still has him facing the possibility of dying in prison if he is convicted, as he also faces separate federal charges in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Tuesday’s ruling nonetheless cuts against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case in the way that Bragg sought to shape it, even if the practical consequence of the dismissal could be slight in the end, especially in light of the separate federal case that carries the potential threat of execution. New York’s state system doesn’t have the death penalty, but the federal system does......

Noting that the terrorism charges brought against Mangione involve proving the defendant intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” Carro wrote that he didn’t think the state Legislature “intended the employees of a company, however large, to constitute a ‘civilian population’ within the meaning of the statute.” The judge went on to write that even if he were to find the employees constituted such a population, “there was no evidence presented that defendant’s conscious objective or intent was to intimidate or coerce the employees of United Healthcare.”

Rather, the judge wrote, Mangione’s apparent objective was “to draw attention to what he perceived as the greed of the insurance industry” and “as an additional possible consequence, to negatively affect the financials of the company.” The judge wrote that Bragg’s office “presented sufficient evidence that the defendant murdered Brian Thompson in a premeditated and calculated execution. That does not mean, however, that the defendant did so with terroristic intent.”