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00:00:19.700U.S. District Judge in New York ruled that federal prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione for the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
00:00:35.080Judge Margaret Garner dismissed the federal murder charge determining it was technically flawed because the underlying stalking charges did not meet the legal definition of a crime of violence.
00:00:48.340Chris, for people that may disagree with this, what do you say to them?
00:00:52.480I understand why you disagree and I hate the message that it sends and I think the prosecutor screwed up.
00:00:59.440And did the judge have to make this ruling? No, but it was close to her having to make it. Why?
00:01:08.320Because the way the law works is the reason you get the death penalty, remember, in the law, the death penalty is a very, very, very high standard, okay?
00:01:16.540And you need to have violent felonies underneath. They said, yeah, stalking is violent.
00:01:22.340That's not the way the stalking is perceived, especially when there's been no contact prior.
00:01:28.160So I think they forced her hand a little bit, but I get why you don't like it because it sends a terrible message.
00:01:38.860And I don't like it. I don't like this kid. I hate that he's Italian. I hate that people say that he's handsome.
00:01:46.560I hate that he's raised all this money. I hate that people argue the other side of it.
00:01:50.680To what you said about Don Lemon, to me, Mangione is that times a million in terms of the message.
00:01:56.900Chris, can you comment on how New York State is more limited on what will get you the capital punishment in the first place?
00:02:03.320When compared to Florida, when compared to Texas, it's federal. It's not state. It's federal.
00:02:08.040If it were a state case, New York would still be tricky, but Florida, I mean, he would have been dead as soon as they caught him in Florida.
00:02:16.160But federal law applies the same in all states.
00:02:20.900Apparently there's judge, I sent you a picture of her, Margaret Garnett.
00:02:25.140She was a liberal judge appointed by Biden.
00:02:30.800And this just goes that everything's political at this point.
00:02:33.280Everything is so politicized that the most unique person in this world, in this country at this point, is someone who's fair and balanced.
00:02:41.280You know, Fox says they're fair and balanced.