UnitedHealthcare killing suspect wants a laptop in jail while awaiting trial
Similar limited-laptop provisions have been made for some other defendants in the federal lockup where he is being held.
Luigi Mangione is asking for a laptop in jail for legal purposes — not for communicating with anyone — as he awaits trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.
In a court filing made public late on Monday, Mangione’s lawyers proposed that he have a laptop configured solely to let him view a vast amount of documents, video and other material in the case surrounding the shooting of Brian Thompson.
Similar limited-laptop provisions have been made for some other defendants in the federal site where Mangione is being held.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Mangione on a rare New York state charge of murder as an act of terrorism, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Mangione’s lawyers, prosecutors are frowning on the laptop request, saying that some witnesses have been threatened.
Defence lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote that there is “no connection to Mr Mangione for any of said alleged threats.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson in December outside a Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealthcare was about to hold an investor conference.
Mr Thompson, who was 50 and had two children in high school, worked for decades within UnitedHealthcare and its parent company.
Mangione, an Ivy League computer science graduate from a Maryland real estate family, has pleaded not guilty to the New York state charges.
He also faces a parallel federal case that carries the possibility of the death penalty. He has not entered a plea to the federal charges or to state-level gun possession and other charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested days after Mr Thompson’s death.
Mr Thompson’s killing alarmed the corporate world, where some health insurers hastily switched to remote work or online shareholder meetings.
The case also channelled some Americans’ frustrations with health insurance companies.
Mangione’s writings and words on bullets recovered from the scene reflected animus toward health insurers and corporate America, authorities have said.
Some people have lionised the accused killer, donated money to his defence and even flocked to his court appearances.
Others, including elected officials, have deplored the praise for what they cast as ideological violence and vigilante justice.
Through his lawyers, Mangione has released a statement thanking supporters.
If he does get a laptop, it would be unable to connect to the internet, run video games or play movies or other entertainment, his lawyers said in Monday’s filing.
But it would let him examine, from his jail cell, more than 15,000 pages of documents and thousands of hours of video that prosecutors gathered and were required to turn over to his attorneys.
Otherwise, he can view the material when meeting with his lawyers. But they say there are not enough visiting hours in the day for him to do that and properly help prepare his defence.
