How Luigi Mangione’s notebook helped the case and what’s next as he heads to trial

CNN
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It was writings uncovered in a notebook found in Luigi Mangione’s possession, authorities say, that would help investigators build the federal case against him — a well-planned killing that involved stalking the movements of his alleged victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

A post dated Aug. 15 reads, “the details are finally coming together,” according to a federal complaint that was unsealed Thursday. “I’m glad — in a way — I deferred,” Mangione reportedly wrote, saying it gave him time to learn more about the company he was targeting, whose name was redacted by prosecutors.

“‘The goal is insurance,’ because ‘it checks every box,'” the notebook said, according to the complaint.

The high-profile case took an unusual turn when Mangione, 26, was hit with new federal charges Thursday, on top of state charges he already faces in the Dec. 4 executive slaying in Manhattan, including first-degree murder as an act of terrorism. . The move appeared to catch his lawyers by surprise.

Now, the state and federal lawsuits will “operate in parallel,” according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

But Mangione’s defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the new charges — which include murder by use of a firearm, two stalking charges and a firearms offense — “raise serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns.”

While it is unusual for federal prosecutors to take on a case like Mangiones, legal experts say, a proposal for double jeopardy — a doctrine that prohibits someone from being tried twice for the same offense — is unlikely to succeed.

Mangione, who will now be held in federal custody, is expected to face the state charges before his federal trial, prosecutors said. But with the federal charges now in play, it’s unclear when Mangione will appear in state court. Federal prosecutors are next expected to seek an indictment from a grand jury.

The federal charges introduce the possibility of Mangione being sentenced to death if convicted of the federal murder charge, while the state charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors have not indicated whether they will seek the death penalty, and the decision must ultimately be approved by the US attorney general.

The notebook authorities say was in Mangione’s possession “contained numerous handwritten pages expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and particularly wealthy executives,” according to the federal complaint.

“The details from the notebook helped the feds build their case because it demonstrates the interstate stalking and the premeditated lying,” said David Shapiro, an instructor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “It’s all there and part of a month long plans to cross state lines.”

In an Oct. 22 post, the writer said, “This investor conference is a true windfall … and — most importantly — the message becomes self-evident.” The post also described the intention to “wake up” the CEO of an insurance company at the conference.

It’s unusual for federal prosecutors to take on a case like Mangiones’, Shapiro says, because historically, murder has been primarily prosecuted by the states, since it’s a crime committed in a specific jurisdiction.

The federal complaint added four new federal charges against Mangione, who was previously indicted on 11 counts this week in New York. The charges include two counts of second-degree murder, one of which alleges he committed the murder “as a crime of terrorism.”

But bringing both state and federal charges is not without precedent.

The push for federal charges came from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, multiple law enforcement sources told CNN. Because the FBI was already involved in the investigation, assisting the NYPD with out-of-town leads, FBI agents were asked to prepare the federal complaint based on evidence collected by NYPD detectives working in the state prosecutor’s office and the Pennsylvania police who arrested Mangione.

Federal prosecutors say they have jurisdiction over the case because Mangione’s “travel in interstate commerce” — taking a bus from Atlanta to New York before the killing — as well as “use of interstate facilities” by allegedly using a cell phone and the Internet “to planning and executing the stalking, shooting and killing” of Thompson in broad daylight on a Manhattan sidewalk.

When Mangione made his first court appearance in New York on Thursday, Agnifilo asked prosecutors to clarify whether there is a joint investigation by federal and state prosecutors or two separate probes.

Mangione’s defense team appears poised to argue that the concurrent charges could violate his rights as a criminal defendant, several legal experts told CNN.

“The federal government’s reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first degree murder and state terrorism case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns,” Agnifilo said. “We stand ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought.”

Agnifilo’s request to prosecutors Thursday is about “creating smoke and doubt,” Shapiro said.

Mangione’s attorney could make a motion for double sentencing, but that is unlikely to succeed, according to both Shapiro and Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor. The Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that state and federal agencies can prosecute a person for the same conduct because they operate as separate entities.

“It does not violate the principles of double jeopardy to have the same person charged by the feds and the state separately,” Honig told CNN. “The rationale there is, these are separate governmental entities and in this case the nature of the charges is different in a technical sense.”

It’s not likely that a judge at the trial level “will take a chance to rule that this is double jeopardy and throw it out,” according to Shapiro, because “the societal stakes are huge.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the state case against Mangione will “run parallel” to the federal case.

According to Shapiro, however, “parallel” suggests “sort of two independent tracks, one above the other.” Instead, he says, the two federal and state investigators are really “intersecting tracks, like threads in a yarn. They’re working together.”

Federal prosecutors asked that Mangione be held, and his attorneys told the court they will not seek bail at this time but reserve the right to do so later. Mangione is being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, the only federal prison operating in New York City.

The biggest issue facing Mangione’s prosecution is jury nullification because, according to Shapiro, “you’re going to get a jury pool that’s going to be somewhat familiar with the case.”

The killing of Thompson, a husband and father of two, exposed the fury of many Americans toward the health care industry, and Mangione garnered widespread support on social media after his arrest. Since his killing, officials have seen a “shocking and appalling celebration of cold-blooded murder,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Jurors can choose to overturn the law and return a not guilty verdict based on their own personal convictions, Shapiro said, even when they believe evidence presented at trial proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Jury nullification is the secret hope and dream of every defense attorney who doesn’t have a case,” Shapiro said. “You cannot argue for annulment as a defense attorney. But a juror can decide on their own to override the law, to ignore the evidence and say they won’t convict for reasons of their own.”

At stake in both the federal and state cases against Mangione, according to Shapiro, is that prosecutors are likely to not want to try the case because it gives Mangione “a soapbox to air his views.”

“I think they want Mangione to plead, and that’s why they’re holding the death penalty against him,” he said.