this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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In December, Luigi Mangione was arrested for shooting health insurance executive Brian Thompson. Last week, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced that she was seeking the death penalty. It’s a highly unusual announcement, since Mangione hasn’t even been indicted yet on a federal level. (He has been indicted in Manhattan.) By intervening in this high-profile case, the Trump administration has made clear that it believes that CEOs are especially important people whose deaths need to be swiftly and mercilessly avenged.

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[–] ComradeRachel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 158 points 5 days ago (7 children)

I think the death penalty being on the table would increase the likelihood of the jury finding a reasonable doubt or jury nullification. It would only hurt the prosecution imo.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 127 points 5 days ago (4 children)

OR it's going to prejudice the jury against him, like it usually does.

When capital punishment is on the table, only people who are in favor of it are selected for the jury, and people who are in favor of state murder are MUCH more likely to return a guilty verdict than people who aren't.

That's one of hundreds of reasons why civilized legal systems don't murder prisoners anymore.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 34 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Why the fuck does the prosecution have the ability to put punishments on the table that are known to bias jury selection?

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 56 points 4 days ago

Because the system itself is rigged in favor of the prosecution by design.

[–] pumpkinseedoil@mander.xyz 5 points 3 days ago

Why is the jury selection not random

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 16 points 4 days ago

Yup. One of the main reasons people oppose the death penalty is because of the proven record of innocent people receiving death sentences. Approximately 4% of people who receive death sentences are actually innocent. We execute many innocent people in this country. The system absolutely does not operate on the principle of "it is better for 1000 guilty to go free than for one innocent to be unjustly punished."

Many oppose the death penalty because they realize just how poor our justice system is at actually determining guilt and innocence. Those who assume it is near-infallible will be much more likely to support the death penalty. So if you screen out those opposed to death sentences, you also screen out people who are more skeptical of the criminal justice system overall.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Doesn't the defense have just as much say in terms of who gets selected out and which signals are used to parse that

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Not really, no.

AFAIK, the defense and the prosecution get the same number of "just because it's bad for my side" exclusions, but not being inclined to render a guilty verdict if there's a possibility of the death penalty is an automatic exclusion that doesn't count towards the prosecution's "freebies".

So yeah, the moment death penalty is on the table, the jury will be biased AND the defense will be much more likely to consider a plea deal for a lesser punishment, further stacking the deck in favor of the prosecution winning one way or the other regardless of actual guilt.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Oh, shit! I'd really appreciate a source for that, if you have it handy

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Didn't have it handy, but didn't take long to find this from Penn State, this from Cornell, and this from the US Office of Justice Programs that the DOGE kakistocracy has apparently not found yet..

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You're very welcome 🙂

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

There's no way this jury is going to be allowed to find him innocent much less jury nullification. If they can't be bribed they'll be threatened.

[–] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I kind of agree, if I were in the jury, it would make me think twice about finding them guilty since I would feel like I have someone’s death on my hands.

[–] Chocobofangirl@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

Yeah but you'd be automatically excluded from jury duty if you admitted that. It's like nullification.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 25 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

Why does it feel like the trump administration would use Mangione's acquittal by jury as a reason to try to attack and do away with the 6th Amendment (trial by jury amendment)?

[–] EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Luckily it would be really hard for them to actually get rid of it. I wouldn't put it past them to try to start doing summary executions or just illegally trying to detain people without trial or whatever but there's 0 chance they get the support to actually remove that amendment.

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

They're just going to skip the courts altogether like they've been doing.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

The tact taken by this administration isn't trying to amend the Constitution, its to simply ignore it. There are three branches of government in the USA. trump's Executive branch and the Legislative appear to be in nearly lock-step in ignoring the Constitution and their duties to uphold it. The Supreme Court has capitulated in almost every action trump's Executive has asked, with only minor pushback. The recent 9-0 Supreme Court decision requiring the trump administration to return of Ábrego García to the USA is the first real pushback we've seen. So far trump is continuing to ignore the return requirement.

In other words, the Constitution is worthless if the bodies in power charged with its defense choose to simply break their oath of office and not defend it.

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

No trial by jury for terrorists.

they blocked the corpse pile at cecot on apple maps but what about the other satellite photo providers?

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 2 points 4 days ago

They won't "do away with it" in any official way, but they've already stopped obeying it.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yep, if you set the bar extraordinarily high, then you have to jump extraordinarily high. Bondi's likely doing more harm than good for her cause.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 50 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Assuming his trial is carried out normally and isn't a sham

[–] char_stats@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago
[–] takeda@lemm.ee 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

My worry is that trump is thinking of sending him to CECOT.

[–] SulaymanF@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Trump always starts with the “worst” criminals as he knows it’s hard for Democrats or others to object since they don’t want to be “on the side of criminals,” but it won’t end there.

[–] primemagnus@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Trump and his sycophants are really really dumb. Like, really. All they have is muscle. Zero brains.

[–] whiskeytango@lemm.ee 9 points 4 days ago

I didn't realize muscle was so flabby