this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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In December, Luigi Mangione was arrested for shooting health insurance executive Brian Thompson. Last week, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced that she was seeking the death penalty. It’s a highly unusual announcement, since Mangione hasn’t even been indicted yet on a federal level. (He has been indicted in Manhattan.) By intervening in this high-profile case, the Trump administration has made clear that it believes that CEOs are especially important people whose deaths need to be swiftly and mercilessly avenged.

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[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 127 points 10 months ago (4 children)

OR it's going to prejudice the jury against him, like it usually does.

When capital punishment is on the table, only people who are in favor of it are selected for the jury, and people who are in favor of state murder are MUCH more likely to return a guilty verdict than people who aren't.

That's one of hundreds of reasons why civilized legal systems don't murder prisoners anymore.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why the fuck does the prosecution have the ability to put punishments on the table that are known to bias jury selection?

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 56 points 10 months ago

Because the system itself is rigged in favor of the prosecution by design.

[–] pumpkinseedoil@mander.xyz 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why is the jury selection not random

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yup. One of the main reasons people oppose the death penalty is because of the proven record of innocent people receiving death sentences. Approximately 4% of people who receive death sentences are actually innocent. We execute many innocent people in this country. The system absolutely does not operate on the principle of "it is better for 1000 guilty to go free than for one innocent to be unjustly punished."

Many oppose the death penalty because they realize just how poor our justice system is at actually determining guilt and innocence. Those who assume it is near-infallible will be much more likely to support the death penalty. So if you screen out those opposed to death sentences, you also screen out people who are more skeptical of the criminal justice system overall.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't the defense have just as much say in terms of who gets selected out and which signals are used to parse that

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not really, no.

AFAIK, the defense and the prosecution get the same number of "just because it's bad for my side" exclusions, but not being inclined to render a guilty verdict if there's a possibility of the death penalty is an automatic exclusion that doesn't count towards the prosecution's "freebies".

So yeah, the moment death penalty is on the table, the jury will be biased AND the defense will be much more likely to consider a plea deal for a lesser punishment, further stacking the deck in favor of the prosecution winning one way or the other regardless of actual guilt.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh, shit! I'd really appreciate a source for that, if you have it handy

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Didn't have it handy, but didn't take long to find this from Penn State, this from Cornell, and this from the US Office of Justice Programs that the DOGE kakistocracy has apparently not found yet..

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago

You're very welcome 🙂