Perp walk of alleged CEO murderer could help defense, attorneys say

The "perp walk" of the alleged murderer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York was strongly criticized by his defense attorney and raised prosecutorial questions among some California criminal law experts who opined that the defense may have been given an out in a case that state and federal officials touted as open-and-shut.

The attorneys also said New York City Mayor Eric Adams' unusual presence among those escorting defendant Luigi Mangione, while being filmed by news media, might bring some validity to his attorney's argument to the judge that the event was staged as political fodder at the expense of her client's constitutional rights.

Before his arraignment on Monday when he pleaded not guilty to 11 state counts - including first-degree murder and terrorism - Mangione was extradited from Pennsylvania to New York. Photos of his walk from a helicopter to a Manhattan courthouse went viral online. Mangione is seen in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit flanked by heavily armed police officers, another uniformed man with his hands in his pockets and Adams.

Although perp walks are not outlawed in California, experts say the procedure is rarely used to move defendants to or from court because of the possibility it may hamper potential jurors' ability to fairly review evidence.

"In Los Angeles, I don't really see that ever happening because when the defendants come to court, it's usually through the back and they're ... cleaned up so you have, at least, an attempt at having a fair trial and assessment," said Dmitry G. Gorin, an Eisner Gorin LLP partner and former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.

Two famous defendants - O.J. Simpson and Harvey Weinstein - were not subjected to perp walks in Los Angeles County. But Weinstein was "perp walked" in New York City. Police kept Simpson from the cameras - all except one - when he was arrested on murder charges in 1994, but he was perp walked in 2007 when he was arrested in Las Vegas on robbery charges.

"When a potential jury pool sees this guy walking around ... as though he's this big danger that's shackled, it definitely leaves the impression with the public that he's not safe, and therefore, by the time he goes to trial, the pool of potential jurors is already prejudiced against him. That's highly unusual, to me, to be done in any criminal case," Gorin added.

Criminal defense specialist Michael J. Proctor, an Iversen Proctor LLP partner, said the New York judge overseeing Mangione's state case could use case law established in Lauro v. Charles to hold the prosecutors accountable if he finds there was a reasonable attempt to stage the escort.

In that case, a circuit panel in 2000 found forced perp walks can and do violate an arrested person's Fourth Amendment rights.

"There is no question that the backdrop of notoriety already makes the defense case very difficult for Mangione and his counsel. But the staged perp walk, for political gain, amounts to a willful attempt to deprive Mangione of his constitutional rights. This includes his right against unreasonable seizures and his right to a fair trial. When this is done purposefully, some judges will hold the prosecution responsible for attempt to undermine the rights of the defendant," Proctor said.

However, Cole & Loeterman partner Dana M. Cole opined that Mangione's viral escort could have elevated his public image to the point where a jury may not be completely convinced he committed the crime.

Much of the public discourse - particularly on social media - about the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk has supported the crime. Many posters have assumed Mangione committed the murder and praised him for it.

"He has developed quite a sympathetic public following. With an ironic enhanced public image, there is always the risk to the prosecution of jury nullification or at least some jurors favoring Luigi, where a hung jury might result," Cole said. "From a counterintuitive point of view, the more public exposure he gets, the greater his following. This might be his only way out in an otherwise slam dunk case."

Mangione also faces four federal charges in New York that relate to stalking and murder by use of a firearm. He faces more state charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested, that relate to forgery and false identification.

During Monday's arraignment before New York County Judge Gregory Carro, an acting New York Supreme Court justice, Mangione's attorney - Karen Friedman Agnifilo of Agnifilo Intrater LLP - accused the prosecutors and city officials of choreographing the escort as an "absolutely unnecessary" attempted political statement. She categorized it as "the biggest staged perp walk I've ever seen in my career" and said it put her client's right to obtain a fair trial at risk.

She also criticized the mayor's presence as an attempt to make a political statement of his own to deflect attention away from his own criminal charges.

In September, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Adams accusing him of bribery and conspiracy related to illegal campaign contributions. Adams has denied any wrongdoing.

During an interview with a New York news reporter for PIX11, Adams said his presence during Mangione's escort was to "send a strong message with the police commissioner that we're leading from the front. I'm not going to allow him to come into our city. ... I wanted to look him in the eye to say that 'You carried out this terrorist act in my city.' ... And I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that."

However, Gorin said Adams' presence and the implication that he was part of the investigation is a "highly unusual" position to take as a mayor and would be a legitimate ground for Mangione's attorneys to use to possibly prolong the case and move it to another state.

"Other than a political gain for that mayor, who's indicted, I don't see why anybody would do this type of walk. ... I think it's a pretty clear case of political spectacle, basically, being more important to the mayor than the constitutional right of the defendant," Gorin said.

Gorin added this could cause problems for any jury presentation of evidence by the government because it gives Mangione an opportunity to revisit his arraignment and explain how he was never given a fair chance to defend himself.

"Now the defense can say, 'Look, we can hardly walk my client in. They're not after truth and justice in this case; they're after getting a conviction at all costs.' And that type of situation leads to errors," Gorin said.

One notable aspect of Mangione's perp walk is how exposed he was. Much of the filming and photography was from above and the police officers' guns were pointed downward. Most were not looking around as they walked, and they were not surrounding him closely.

The scene was reminiscent of perhaps the most famous American perp walk, that of Lee Harvey Oswald, arrested for the shooting of a Dallas police officer and assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Oswald was being transferred from the Dallas city jail to the county jail. Walking him, fully exposed, through the crowded basement allowed nightclub owner Jack Ruby to approach and shoot him twice at close range.