NEW YORK — As Luigi Mangione's team of attorneys heads back to state court in Manhattan this week for a key pretrial hearing, public support for the 28-year-old continues to grow.
Some legal experts say Mangione's populist appeal, fueled in part by what many describe as his Instagram-ready good looks, could complicate state and federal trials.
"The concern you have as a prosecutor is that public support is going to make it into the jury room," said Richard Schoenstein, a legal analyst and defense attorney.
Mangione is accused of stalking and murdering Brian Thompson, age 50, a health insurance executive and father of two, on a Manhattan street in 2024. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His crowd-sourced legal defense fund now tops $1.5 million, with more than 42,000 donors. According to a pro-Mangione website created by volunteers, he has also received nearly 7,000 personal letters from dozens of countries around the world.
Gary Galperin, a former assistant district attorney in New York County who teaches at Cardozo School of Law, agrees jury selection will be challenging because of Mangione's popularity.
"You may come to find that one or more jurors who seemed [unbiased] harbor views that could derail the deliberations," he said.
A CEO's killing, the rise of a folk hero
Another risk, say Schoenstein, Galperin and others, is that some jurors could come to see Mangione's state and federal trials as a referendum on the costly, frustrating and often inaccessible U.S. healthcare system.
According to federal prosecutors, a notebook kept by Mangione "contained several handwritten pages that express hostility towards the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular."
Mangione's writings allegedly included a plan to "wack" an insurance company CEO.
Schoenstein thinks many Mangione supporters are so outraged by U.S. healthcare that they view his alleged violence as a legitimate political statement.
"There definitely are people out there who assume this defendant committed the crime, but support him in doing so," he said.
Evan Clarkson, an assistant professor at Utah Valley University who has studied the phenomenon of Mangione's popular support, says he began his research after many of his students told him they felt "conflicted" about Mangione's alleged crimes.
"There are some students who believe he is absolutely a justified vigilante ... against this system, the American healthcare system, that they think is unjust."
Clarkson and other experts think Mangione's political appeal is being further fueled by the fact that he's young and photogenic.
Images of Mangione shirtless have gone viral on social media platforms. His fans have written poetry and songs about him and flooded the prison where he's detained with photographs.
"He's hot — and our [research] paper does talk about the role of his physical attractiveness," Clarkson said, noting that views expressed about Mangione's appearance are a "powerful predictor of people's attitudes about him."
Daniel Byman, an expert on domestic political violence in the U.S. at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agrees Mangione's physical appearance is a significant factor.
He compares Mangione's relatively broad cultural support to that of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.
"Che Guevara was a very bloody revolutionary and yet his poster was on dorm room walls," Byman said. "Mangione [like Guevara] is a good-looking guy."
Mangione's legal team declined to be interviewed for this story, but in a statement posted on a website they created to communicate with supporters, his attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, rejected the idea that her client espoused political violence.
State trial scheduled to begin in September
In a separate statement, Mangione himself, currently behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, acknowledged the personal connection many of his supporters feel.
"I am overwhelmed by — and grateful for — everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support," Mangione said in the undated post.
It's unclear how the political and cultural currents surrounding Mangione will play out in court.
His team has won significant legal victories. Last September, a state judge tossed out terrorism charges filed against Mangione. Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that Mangione won't face the death penalty.
But prosecutors have also won key rulings, including a decision last month by state Judge Gregory Carro to allow crucial pieces of evidence to be presented at trial.
"I found that ruling, at the end of the day, to be a compelling win for the prosecutors," said Schoenstein, the legal analyst. "The gun, the silencer and the notebook [which allegedly belonged to Mangione] are all coming into evidence. It seems like a very strong case for the prosecution."
The state trial is scheduled to begin in early September, with the federal trial delayed to next year. In a comment left online, while donating $5,000 to Mangione's legal fund, one supporter made it clear they see the upcoming trials as political persecution.
"I am disturbed by what the government is doing to you," the donor wrote. "For them, it was and always will be about protecting the 1%. Head up, Luigi. We are right here with you."
If found guilty on the remaining charges, Mangione could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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