r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Glittery_WarlockWho • 24d ago

Why is Luigi Mangione potentially facing the death penalty for the murder of one person when other murderers with similar crimes get jain time?

Please no snarky comments of 'you know why' , 'it's because the guy was rich' etc... There HAS to be a reason why his crime is getting sentenced so heavily that doesn't have to do with the net worth of his victim, or at least I hope there is.

In my city, a drunk driver kills two people in a car and he's sentenced to jail for 20 years and gets out in 12 for good behaviour.

Luigi kills one man and is facing the death penalty?

I don't understand, he didn't kidnap, rape or torture, I've heard of murderers who rape and murder their victims get sentenced to jail.

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62

u/[deleted] 24d ago

You don't understand the difference between planning to murder someone and accidentally killing someone because you drive drunk?

2

u/Kilzi 23d ago

Drunk driving should absolutely be counted as murder and intended murder.

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u/escargot3 23d ago

Its negligence not intent/murder

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u/faramaobscena 23d ago

I agree. You chose to drive drunk.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

I don't agree but still what he did was first degree murder. Surely you don't think that there should be no difference of punishment at all for 1st vs 2nd or 3rd degree murder?

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

Lol no it shouldn’t.

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u/sirspacebill 24d ago

What about school shooters who don't kill themselves first like parkland?

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Well that guy should have gotten the death penalty. The special jury for that purpose (i.e. in the sentencing phase when he was already found guilty of the murders) decided against it. There was a lot of public outrage but basically his defense made a case that he was too dumb to be fully responsible and the jury considered that as sufficient mitigating factors to give him life without parole instead.

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u/bluepinkwhiteflag 23d ago

Honestly I think life without parole is worse than just dying anyway.

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u/Mediocre-Kiwi-2155 23d ago

I’d much rather be alive in prison than dead, personally.

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u/bluepinkwhiteflag 23d ago

I guess it depends on the country but in the US, for a murder, I'd rather be dead.

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u/Salty-Raisin-2226 23d ago

No you wouldn't and you know why? Cause everyone facing the death penalty tries to get out of it. Seriously, coldstone murderers take a plea deal for life imprisonment over being sentenced to death. Your human instincts override what you think you would do

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u/bluepinkwhiteflag 23d ago

Yeah... I don't really feel like getting raped.

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u/ASpookyShadeOfGray 23d ago

You don't get it. You are talking the big talk now, but when it comes time for the long walk to the gallows you will get over whatever other fear you think you have.

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u/sirspacebill 23d ago

But there's others like 2012 aurora and el paso as well, its not exactly rare for a mass murderer to not get a death sentence. Most of the ones that are dead are dead because they took their own lives before they were caught. To put Luigi on a pedestal and say we will do everything we can to make sure this guy gets the death penalty (even though he hasn't even been found guilty) by the fuckin white house, which should have much more decorum, is just pretty blatantly purposefully divisive political theater. Much like most white house announcements lately.

3

u/deacon1214 23d ago

It's exceptionally difficult to get someone sentenced to death. Capital defenders basically live by the slogan "death is different" and it's very true. Your potential jurors have to be death penalty qualified which substantially increases the difficulty of selecting a jury. many capital defenders throw every barely arguable piece of shit motion and argument at the wall and bury the case in paperwork and delays until it just becomes easier for everyone involved (especially the families of the victims) to go with a life offer rather than subjecting everyone to a trial and then having that trial go under the microscope of years of appeals.

Guy pleads guilty and takes life the case is basically over. You go to trial and get death there is an entire legal industry built around taking those cases apart on appeal. You deal with three decades of appeals to courts from every level and continuously dredge all of this up for the victim's families. You spend millions of dollars in resources to kill a guy who wasn't worth a shit to begin with. The flip side of that coin is that you give him life and that entire legal industry built around opposing the death penalty in every case no longer gives a shit about him. Appellate issues drop to near zero and the families have stability in knowing that he's not getting out until he's so old and infirmed that he'll never be a threat to anyone again.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

Aren't the life sentences mostly either due to a plea deal or jurisdiction?

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u/Jamezzzzz69 23d ago

In Aurora the govt sought the death penalty but the jury couldn’t agree on it, whilst in El Paso the perpetrator took a guilty plea (which is much cheaper and more practical as the other guy commented) for life in prison.

Mangione has refused any plea deals and gone with a not guilty plea to head to trial, if the Aurora case is anything to go by and the lukewarm public support of him, he is very unlikely to actually get executed.

Don’t compare finished trials with an ongoing one purely due to what prosecutors seek. In pretty much every one of these shootings, terrorism charges etc prosecutors seek the death penalty and only don’t get it due to either the jury disagreeing or saving millions and decades of lawsuits by offering a life in prison plea deal.

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u/escargot3 23d ago

They didn’t accidentally kill those people

1

u/engelthefallen 23d ago

Most of them end up as incompetent to stand trial and those who are fit to go to trial have been taking the plea deals offered if death is on the line.

For Cruz in particular, the death sentence was not able to be applied to him under Florida law as the jury did not unanimously agree on it, and the law was changed as a result afterwards.

Also Luigi it seems believes he will win his trial and be declared innocent so has shown little interest in agreeing to spend the rest of his life behind bars.