Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, a veteran of many courtroom battles, Wednesday on Newsmax said the case against Luigi Mangione, accused in the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is the "most open-and-shut factual case I've ever seen."
"You just can't defy reality," Dershowitz said on "Newsline." "A jury will convict within 10 minutes here, unless there is a defense that goes beyond did he do it or didn't he do it."
Other potential defenses, said Dershowitz, could involve arguments that Mangione, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the Thompson shooting, was possibly mentally ill or on drugs.
Mangione's attorney, Thomas Dickey, told ABC News "Good Morning America" anchor George Stephanopoulos Wednesday that he's seen "no evidence" that would conclude that Mangione is guilty. Dershowitz called that "absurd."
"If he defends this case in court, the first thing he will say is, 'Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we admit that our client actually committed the crime,'" said Dershowitz. "If he tries to deny all facts in the case, he will lose all credibility. ... Maybe the lawyer will suggest some kind of representation, but factually, there's just no doubt that he's guilty. Nothing. Nothing is doubtful at all."
Law enforcement officials Wednesday said that when Mangione was captured in Pennsylvania, he a notebook that outlined his plans for the killing. Further fingerprints taken from Mangione were said to match those taken from items at the scene of the killing in midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, marking the first forensic match tying him to the crime scene.
Meanwhile, there has been a groundswell of support for Mangione after his arrest, and Dershowitz said Americans' view on such crimes started 14 months ago when college students and professors were in denial over Hamas' invasion of Israel.
"You'll get people on the street saying this guy is a hero," he said. "You'll get lawyers saying he didn't do it. But when you get 12 jurors and you hear the evidence, you see the fingerprints and you read the confession, everybody is going to say within minutes, of course he did it."
The case also falls within the jurisdiction of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who Dershowitz said "should never prosecute a single case in New York again" after he went after President-elect Donald Trump on a "made-up charge" and after the acquittal of Daniel Penny in the subway death Jordan Neely.
"Bragg doesn't have the capacity to bring a real case because he doesn't have any credibility," said Dershowitz. "If I'm the defense attorney here, I would pray for Bragg to bring this case and then try to put Bragg on trial in the New York District Attorney's office. The public would be far better served if a credible district attorney brought this case."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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