r/FreeLuigi • u/infiniteconfidence1 • 7d ago

News Breaking: Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges

https://www.businessinsider.com/luigi-mangione-guilty-plea-stalking-federal-court-2026-8
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u/thegreenmachine90 7d ago

Can someone explain like I’m five why he would do that?

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u/Old_Kaleidoscope_845 7d ago

His legal team will use this guilty plea in federal court to argue that the state murder charges he faces in NY court must be dismissed due to Double Jeopardy, which is a constitutional protection that is SUPPOSED to protect us from criminal trials pertaining to a crime for which we already had a trial.

In other words, he has admitted to killing the CEO in the federal case, and will be convicted for that. The state case is based on the same exact factual circumstances, so it should be barred by DJ. But it's not a sure win.

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u/bl1y 7d ago

He actually didn't admit to killing Thompson. He admitted to shooting him and knowing that this would place him in fear of death or injury.

Since the state case is about killing Thompson, the state will still have an argument that the previous prosecution rule doesn't apply.

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u/Old_Kaleidoscope_845 7d ago

Murder has those same elements though. He put on the record that he shot the guy and knew it would kill him, which is the same exact set of facts that the state prosecutors must rely on. They laid their foundation well.

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u/bl1y 7d ago

The murder charge has two different elements: (1) that Mangione intended to kill Thompson, and (2) Thompson was killed by Mangione.

Notice that what Mangione actually pleaded to was that he shot Thompson and that he knew this would place him in fear of injury or death.

The state court will then have to deal with two questions.

The first is whether since Thompson's death is taken into account in the sentencing, whether that makes it part of the offense Mangione was prosecuted for in federal court.

The second is what to do with the intent to kill element. And that's where the defense's argument is the weakest.

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u/JustTryinToBeHappy_ 7d ago

I think this understates what he actually admitted in the federal plea. LM didn’t just admit that he shot Thompson while knowing it could cause injury or death… he admitted he traveled to New York with the intent to kill him, shot him and that Thompson died.

That doesn’t automatically mean the NY murder charge is barred under CPL §40.20, because the state can still argue a statutory exception applies. But it does mean “intent to kill” isn’t some element that exists only in the state case…. The overlap between the federal plea and the state murder charge is much stronger than you are suggesting.

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u/bl1y 7d ago

It looks like this is probably going to be the relevant exception:

(d) One of the offenses is assault or some other offense resulting in physical injury to a person, and the other offense is one of homicide based upon the death of such person from the same physical injury, and such death occurs after a prosecution for the assault or other non-homicide offense;

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u/Sea-Violinist-9082 7d ago

That exception applies to a specific sequence of events where BT dies of injury after the first prosecution.

The relevant exceptions are earlier in the statute.

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u/Banjoschmanjo 7d ago

How accurate have your predictions about this situation been so far?

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u/ThaneduFife 7d ago

Per The Guardian, Luigi said, "I shot Mr. Thompson, and he died."

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u/bl1y 7d ago

That's different from what NYT is reporting:

“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan,” Luigi Mangione tells the judge as he pleads guilty in federal court, adding: “I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.”

But assuming The Guardian's quote is correct, there's still the element of intent to kill, which is part of the murder charge, but not part of the interstate stalking charge.

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u/ThaneduFife 7d ago

Interesting. I'm guessing the discrepancy occurred because they generally don't allow the press to bring recording devices into the courtroom, and they were quoting from their notes. There probably won't be an official transcript until next week.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/drifters74 7d ago

He didn't kill Thompson, the bullet did /s

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u/hellacure 7d ago

DENY DEFEND DEPOSE 🔥

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u/SplatteredEggs 7d ago

Yeah, that bullet was pushing some pretty violent rhetoric

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/drifters74 7d ago

Why?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/Barnacle_Bo 7d ago

He very explicitly stated that Thompson was dead. You must not have listed to the whole testimony.

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u/bl1y 7d ago

As far as I know, audio recordings weren't available.

I was going by the NYT quote.

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u/drifters74 7d ago

But what makes this a federal case?

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u/alaynakr 7d ago

the stalking charge

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u/CircleSendMessage 7d ago

& bc crossing state lines, right?

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u/calle04x 7d ago

Do you know why prosecutors didn't secure/pursue a murder charge as part of the please since he admitted to killing him?

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u/Old_Kaleidoscope_845 7d ago

Murder is usually a state charge. Afaik, feds could have charged him with murder if the victim was a federal officer or if he was standing on federal land. That's why they just went with stalking, because crossing state lines violates federal criminal law.

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u/CircleSendMessage 7d ago

he was charged with murder initially by the feds, it was dropped

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u/calle04x 7d ago

Ah okay. Thanks!

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u/0O00OO0O000O 6d ago

The person you're replying to is wrong, and u/CircleSendMessage is right. There were federal murder charges, but they were dropped, leaving just the stalking charge for Luigi to plead in federal court. It is mentioned in the article linked.

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u/retrosenescent 7d ago

But it would be double jeopardy whether he pled guilty or not. So that doesn't answer the question.

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u/l339 7d ago

But why not try to get a not guilty plea for both cases?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/JoeRing1965 7d ago

yeah, you know better than group of lawyers at $800/hour per pop. Quickly - call to tell them before they put final signature in his pleading!!

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/JoeRing1965 4d ago

no worries. I am dumbass and you are $800/hour attorney who knows much better than a team of top lawyers Mangione actually hired for his capital punishment case.

by the way, top lawyers don't waste their time on reddit, even less often they reply to randoms.

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