Donations for the legal defense of Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, topped $55,000 Thursday, amid a wave of online support for the suspect that’s shown no signs of cresting.
There is no evidence this is an official donation fund
He has 30+ years of criminal defense experience, and clearly has some media training (which let's face it, that's going to be critical in this case in particular).
The guy has even successfully appealed the PA supreme court. What more are you looking for in a defense lawyer, exactly?
Yeah from that video and the one later he seems to know his stuff. Using "put yourself in Luigi's position" is the perfect answer to avoid leaking sensitive info about your discussions with your client that the media are constantly prodding for, while still evoking sympathy for the defendant.
I admit I haven't watched the entire press conference...
But I think our standards have been drastically lowered by the last election if the dude in that video qualifies as "clearly having some media training".
The most noteworthy case in that article was a robbery turned double murder where the defendant is clearly guilty. I didn't see anything about appealing the PA SC, but whether or not that's impressive is highly dependent on the exact case. And it's not as rare as you seem to think it is.
I'm not saying he's a bad lawyer.
Just that he's not the caliber lawyer Luigi needs when the full force of the government is going to come down on him.
He seems like a pretty good lawyer to me. A lot of non-answers. No speculation or sensationalism. He's controlling the conversation rather than letting the reporters derail it. Any particular reason you think he's bad?
He isn't a defense attorney, he does worker comp and divorces too.
I'm not saying he's terrible, it's like grabbing the most middle of the road highschool basketball player and throwing him in a NBA Dunk contest and asking why people are saying he won't perform well.
They're not saying he's a bad HS player, they're saying he is completely out of his league.
For a local extradition hearing it's probably better to use a local lawyer that knows the judge. Once he gets tried in New York he'll probably hire someone else.
It's not like the extradition hearing is the venue to put up the biggest fight given how much evidence there is.
Idk, joking around and feeling relatable are pretty good strategies for making a jury feel more sympathetic to the defense. And as other people have said with how high profile this case being calm and good on camera is important. So far I've thought he seemed great.
Also, there's basically no chance he successfully blocks extradition. This is just a delaying action to have more time as a story. Being able to handle media well is probably his primary requirement.