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

[u/Glittery_WarlockWho]

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.

[u/1acedude]

Yeah so the big thing for death qualified is you’re removing jurors categorically opposed or in favor of DP. Because DP is legal it’s considered as the juror not being willing to follow the law. Because DP is not required, categorically in favor is also considered unwilling to follow the law.

Generally there’s preliminary questionnaires asking jurors positions. But the real work comes in voir dire (the question answer pick jury portion). Jurors may pass preliminary questions but you poke and prod their beliefs and you and they realize together that juror actually does have extreme beliefs.

In truth after voir dire, if a juror makes it onto the panel, there isn’t any check or balance. That portions over. There are no extremely rare example of jurors lying. Sometimes it’s a mistrial, other times it’s removing them and using one of the alternate jurors that were picked

[u/johnny-Low-Five → u/1acedude]

Yeah I had no problem on the questionnaire but my dad was an NYPD Homicide Detective, Defense attorney asked if anyone had family or close friends in law enforcement. Raised my hand thinking I was going home (I wanted to serve) he asked me 2 follow ups the first "Do you believe everyone arrested is guilty?" I was 19 and chuckled and said of course not. He was happy prosecution wasn't bothered. Then he asked if I had ever been in a street fight and did I think hurting someone in a fight was a crime regardless of circumstances? I said no, he was happy prosecution seemed to like my father being a cop and didn't want to waste a challenge (I ended up juror #2) so early as the defendant stabbed someone in the eye (the stabbed guy pulled the knife though) and probably figured I would see the difference between bloody noses and black eyes vs a literal missing eyeball!

Quick question, by categorically in favor of the DP what exactly do you mean? Is that believing anyone guilty should get the death penalty when possible or do you mean anyone who absolutely believes some crimes are so horrific that death is the appropriate punishment?

I'm hoping you mean the first one because the second group is where I would fit, with a caveat that personally I am only OK with death where their guilt isn't really in question, like on video or multiple eye witnesses AND your dna or eye witnesses, people who testify you said you were gonna do it and a confession. Death is forever and there are no takebacks, life in prison without any possibility of release is there for such situations where there is even a .1% chance they didn't do it.

[u/1acedude → u/johnny-Low-Five]

to answer your question, it's the latter; if a juror feels some crimes warrant death no matter what.

The law only permits death when the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. That's because a death sentence must be individually considered, it can't be automatic. One of the most common is involving child sex crimes in addition to the murder. Lots of people feel this requires automatic death. But law requires, for example, consideration of a defendant's low IQ, the fact his mother drank and did drugs while defendant was in the womb and that impaired his development and the way his brain functions. Here's the statutory list of factors: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3592

[u/vastapple666 → u/1acedude]

You should read up on this case if you’re a lawyer. Pam Bondi just went on TV and announced the death penalty before he was even indicted and totally ignored the detailed capital case procedures in the DOJ Manual. It’s batshit and I don’t understand why more lawyers aren’t up in arms.