As Luigi Mangione appeared in a court in Manhattan where he pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, his lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo made some strong statements against the ongoing treatment of the case depriving Mangione the ‘right to a fair trial’. His lawyer said that Mangione has been made into a spectacle, and was paraded in New York like he is some political fodder. She also addressed the federal charges of murder and stalking against her client that could bring the death penalty to her client.

Here’s the full statement of Luigi Mangione’s lawyer

“We have two proceedings that we have to answer to — one of them being death-eligible so we are requesting that we get immediate discovery from the New York City police department and FBI and federal and state documents, she said.
“The second thing I want to make a record of, your honour, is that I am very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial. In this case, he’s being prejudiced by some statements that are being made by government officials. Like every other defendant, he is entitled to a presumption of innocence but unfortunately, the way this has been handled so far his rights are being violated. There’s a wealth of case law guaranteeing his right to a fair trial but none of the safeguards have been put in place yet here. In fact, it’s just the opposite. He’s a young man but he’s being treated like a human ping-pong ball between two warring jurisdictions here. These federal and state prosecutors are coordinating with one another at the expense of him. They have conflicting theories in their indictments and they are literally treating him like he’s some sort of political fodder, 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. He’s been cooperative with law enforcement, he’s been in custody for over a week; he waived extradition; he was cooperative on all accounts. There was no reason for the NYPD and everybody to have these big assault rifles. Frankly, I had no idea what was their arsenal.. the press there, the media…it was perfectly choreographed and what was the city mayor doing at the press conference? ….And frankly, I submit, he (the mayor) was just trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr Mangione.”
Then the lawyer pointed out the statement of mayor Eric Adams that he gave on the day Mangione was brought from Pennsylvania to New York and said that nowhere in his statement did the mayor mention the word “alleged” before calling Mangione a murderer. Mangione is innocent until proven guilty and this political charade has to stop, the lawyer said.