Moments after Luigi Mangione was handcuffed at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.
The discovery, recounted in court Monday as Mangione fights to keep evidence out of his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that he was the man wanted in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier.
That “technicality” is a critical part of our criminal justice system. I’d much rather a criminal be set free than set the precedent that due process is optional
Allowing exceptions here would open the door to all sorts of corruption. What would then stop the president from treating all his political opponents the same way? Have them all raided without cause and “find” all sorts of evidence
By the way, the jury thing is jury nullification. The basic concept is that if a juror feels a law is unjust (or any other reason), they can vote not to convict even if the burden of proof was met for a conviction. The courts can’t tell the jury their verdict is incorrect. The only recourse is an appeal (which can’t happen in an acquittal due to double jeopardy)
Jury nullification was used quite a bit in the North before the Civil War. Many Northern juries chose to acquit violations of the Fugitive Slave Act because they felt the law was unjust
Let’s say that the most generous past examples are followed and the evidence found on his person and statements he made following his arrests are off the table as evidence. There is still his history, lack of alibi, clothing, and the gun mod he printed. He’s still guilty.
Exactly. In the past few decades there have been many examples of falsely accused prisoners being exonerated by new evidence or corrupt convictions. Not to mention those that were executed before they could be found innocent.
That’s why it’s crucial that we hold our justice system to the highest standard. Not only because we want to find the perpetrator, but to ensure that we’re not convicting an innocent person. If the price of that is a few criminals get to escape justice, so be it.