The Trump administration has taken on yet another position in favor of tyranny by asking the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione, a 2020 Engineering graduate, had quickly been seen by the public as a martyr in the fight against big healthcare corporations, which have long been criticized for prioritizing profits over human lives. United Healthcare's past actions, such as denying claims of customers and upcoding medical procedures to make more money, have been scrutinized for making health care inaccessible, and are believed to have partially motivated Mangione’s actions.
But with 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump as our sitting President, the government has come to the defense of Brian Thompson. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, believes that Mangione’s crime is worthy of our country’s most severe criminal punishment.
When Pam Bondi seeks the death penalty for Mangione, maybe to steal some of Mangione’s Instagram attention and get some of her own, as Mangione’s legal counsel points out, we should be incredibly concerned.
However, this is more than another sensationalist take from an administration that we already know to adore controversy and attention; it’s the next step in the tyrannical weaponization of our legal system for purely political ends.
Currently, we’re facing one case of censorship after another, whether in the form of visa revocations for students, research funding cuts, or the dismissal of government officials. Our government is being used to advance a conservative agenda by blatantly silencing opposition voices and shamelessly autocratizing power. Bondi wants to deter any further ‘Mangiones’ from emerging — both the brutal action he took and the ideas he represents.
Trump is desperate to signal solidarity with corporate executives, including private health insurance companies. After all, our country’s executive branch is led by a man who built his business and political career on scamming people for money, whether it was to fund his legal counsel or by running a fraudulent university. Our government will now serve the interests of corporate leaders and turn a blind eye to anyone who tries to wage resistance against them.
The crime that Mangione committed is not excusable, no matter what was behind it. But simply looking at legal precedent, it should not warrant the death penalty.
Capital punishment is legal in 27 of the 50 American states, and only authorized to punish some of our society’s most heinous crimes. It can be used for first-degree murder, and, yes, if proven guilty, this would be an instance of premeditated murder.
However, in most states, it requires other aggravating factors, in addition to the murder. These factors could range from previous criminal offenses to kidnapping to the terrorization of a protected group of people. For example, the murder of a child is deemed as heinous enough to receive the death penalty. But for Mangione, there are no other aggravating factors. He had no other victims, did not barge into someone’s private property, nor did he kill a child.
Does this mean that, to Bondi and the MAGA movement, Brian Thompson is the equivalent of a child, with the same level of vulnerability and innocence? If Bondi’s recommendations are to be followed, then we know that our country’s justice system, and whatever cruel punishments are at its disposal, are no longer grounded in any form of legality or precedent. They are swayed by the political motivations and repressive fervor of the executive branch.
NAMRATA PRADEEP is a College and Engineering first year from Raleigh, N.C. Her email address is namratap@seas.upenn.edu.
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