For two weeks now, a rotating cast of police officers have arrived to a Manhattan courtroom to lay out exactly what happened the day Luigi Mangione was arrested and accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Two questions are at the heart of this lengthy pre-trial suppression hearing: Was the search of Mangione’s backpack in Altoona, Pennsylvania, last year legal? And did officers properly read him his Miranda rights?
If the judge rules for the defense, prosecutors may not be allowed to show the jury key pieces of evidence in the case, including the 3D-printed firearm, loaded magazine, silencer and handwritten journal found in Mangione’s backpack, as well as some statements he made.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including second-degree murder, in a case that has made clear the depth of frustration and anger at the American health care system. A trial date has not yet been set.
It’ll be an uphill battle for Mangione’s defense to get the evidence suppressed. Defendants tend to lose suppression hearings the vast majority of the time, said CNN legal analyst and defense attorney Joey Jackson.
Even so, getting so many officers and eyewitnesses to testify under oath can help the defense down the road. Through the hearing, the defense now knows what the officers saw and did and can probe for any inconsistencies.
“Here, where you’ve had over a dozen witnesses testify and counting, you’ve got a lot of good intel if you’re the defense in terms of what’s coming for you,” Jackson said.
In other words, the defense can lose this battle but sti
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