Mangione, clad in a maroon sweater, white shirt, khaki pants, and orange shoes with his hands and feet in shackles, announced his intent to enter a not guilty plea to Judge Gregory Carro of Manhattan Supreme Court at his arraignment on state murder charges, which accuse him of committing an act of terrorism.
Luigi Mangione.CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said she is concerned about her client’s ability to get a fair trial, after a throng of heavily-armed NYPD and FBI agents escorted the accused killer from a helicopter in a highly choreographed sequence en route to his first arraignment last week.
The attorney took particular aim at Mayor Eric Adams, who attended the perp walk even as he himselffaces a federal indictment on bribery and fraud charges.
Curtis Means-Pool/Getty
“They are literally treating him like some sort of political fodder, like some sort of spectacle. He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest staged perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary,” said Friedman Agnifilo. “And what was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference?”
“That just made it utterly political,” she continued. “And frankly, your honor, the mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence that he, too, is afforded dealing with his own issues.”
Friedman-Agnifilo contended that the federal and state prosecutors are “warring” with one another, filing indictments she claims are in conflict with one another and leaving Mangione in the middle like a “ping pong ball.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has accused Mangione of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a “brazen, targeted” shooting outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4. He faces first and second-degree murder charges, as well as weapons and forgery charges.
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The accused killer also faces federal murder charges that could land him the death penalty. He further faces weapons and forgery charges in Pennsylvania, where he was caught after a five-day manhunt.
He’s pled not guilty to the Pennsylvania charges, but hasn’t entered a plea to the federal raps.
Mangione is being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, thesame federal lockup housing Sean “Diddy” Combs. The two even share a lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, the husband of Karen.
source: people.com