GAVEL GAMUT
By Jim Redwine
www.jamesmredwine.com
PRESUMED MENTALLY ILL
Luigi Mangione is presumed by the Manhattan New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg
to have murdered United Healthcare Chief Executive Officer Brian Thompson and has had him indicted by a Grand Jury for First Degree Murder. If the state does not presume Mangione guilty, it should not have charged him. Of course, the generic legal system is supposed to presume Mangione innocent, good luck with that, but it’s a good theory.
As for me, I know only what CNN, MSNBC and FOX News tell me about the case of
December 04, 2024. Therefore, based on my experience with cable news, I conclude I should not presume anything except that Mr. Thompson was shot in the back by a masked person; after all, I have seen that in countless showings on television with my own eyes. And even Mr. Thompson’s identification, medical condition and employment are only known to me via hearsay. Now with AI, even my eyes cannot be afforded unquestioned reliability. The general public has no legal obligation to presume anything unless they happen to be selected to serve on a jury that may eventually try Mangione.
As for Mr. Mangione’s new attorney in his New York case, she has been described by the
media as “high powered” and high profile. Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo is either Clarence Darrow or Shakespeare’s Shylock if one pays heed to the national media. Regardless, before she agreed to represent Mangione she had publicly opined on mental illness as a defense Mangione might advance. Now, should she decide to appear in Court for Mangione, she might advance in the case the theory that Mangione suffered from mental illness at the time of the shooting; i.e., that the evidence proves it is more likely than not at the time of the shooting Mangione suffered from a mental illness and the shooting was done as a result of that mental illness.
I, nor you either Gentle Reader, is in a position to assign legal liability to Mangione. Under our system of justice as governed by the law of New York state, a judge or jury may end
up deciding whether Mr. Mangione is legally responsible for Mr. Thompson’s death. Each of our fifty states has its own statutory scheme to address criminal liability for those who claim their otherwise criminal actions should be processed as a case of diminished responsibility. Each state’s system is both factually and medically sensitive and requires that one charged with a crime first raise the defense of diminished capacity via a pleading filed before the Court and then carry the burden of proving that defense by a preponderance of the evidence.
The presumption in criminal cases is that one charged with a crime did not act as a result
of diminished responsibility and that the defendant did understand what they were doing and had the mental ability to conform their actions to the law. The burden of proof on the issue of diminished responsibility, by a preponderance of the evidence, is upon the defendant. The law’s requirement that a possibly mentally ill person must prove his or her mental illness, is the only way our law has so far found to process the mental illness defense. I confess I do not see how society could carry such a burden and still process the countless cases such a defense might engender. Therefore, the burden to prove mental illness at the time of the crime must rest on the defendant.
If Mangione should be found by a Judge or Jury to have committed the shooting and that
he was of legally diminished capability when he did so, the State of New York will have the
burden of incarcerating him in a medical facility until he is “cured” or until he passes away.
Regardless, the legal system will be obligated to process the case pursuant to legal and medical statutory requirements. Also, no matter how the case is finally resolved, I predict about as many people will be aggrieved as will be happy.
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