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April 2, 2025 15 mins

In case you missed it, the death penalty has returned as the most extreme punishment one can receive for a federal crime in the U.S.

It was one of the many executive orders President Donald Trump made on his first day in office.

And now, it could be used in one of the most high-profile murder cases in the country of the past decade.

Today we’re here to explain the use of the death penalty in the U.S. and why it might be used in the case of Luigi Mangione.

Hosts: Sam Koslowski and Billi FitzSimons
Producer: Orla Maher

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already and this is the daily This is the daly Os. Oh,
now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome to the
daly Os. It's Thursday, the third of April. I'm Billy,
I'm Sam. In case you missed it, the death penalty

(00:21):
has returned as the most extreme punishment one can receive
for a federal crime in the US. It was one
of the many executive orders President Donald Trump made on
his first day in office back in January, and now
it could be used in one of the most high
profile murder cases in the country of the past decade. Today,
we're here to explain the use of the death penalty

(00:43):
in the US and why it might be used in
the case of Luigi Maggioni.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Billy, this was really one of the biggest stories in
the world when everything happened in December. That was four
months ago, which is just crazy to think about that.
I mean, I remember not only the story and just
the brazen vision that we could see of what happened
on the street. And we're going to get into exactly
what happened, but then the internet reaction after that as well.
Before we do get into what's happened this week, particularly

(01:14):
in relation to the death penalty. Give me a brief
overview of who Luigi Mangioni is and what he's accused
of doing.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, many of us will remember this case because of
how viral it went on social media, particularly on TikTok.
I think it just you know, had a life of
its own on that platform. So Luigi Mangioni, he is
a twenty six year old man, and in December of
last year, he was arrested over the killing of a
health insurance CEO in New York. Now, the CCTV footage

(01:45):
which you were just talking about, Sam of this shooting
shows the CEO, whose name is Brian Thompson, walking to
a conference in New York just before seven am one morning,
and the shooter, who we now know is allegedly Mangioni,
comes up behind him in this eerily calm fashion. He
really doesn't look stressed at all. It almost looks like

(02:07):
it's straight out of a video game, and he shoots
Brian Thompson from behind, and Thompson immediately drops to the
ground and he was announced dead at the scene. Now,
this shooting prompted a nationwide manhunt, almost international if you
take into account, you know, all of the people on
social media around the globe who were completely hooked to

(02:29):
this case.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
The amateur slew things exactly really interesting time to watch
the Internet kind of be a bit of a beast.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, And it went on for a couple of days.
I think it was just under a week that you know,
there were prosecutors or there were police all over the
country trying to figure out who this person was. And
then that ended when Mangioni was spotted by an employee
Adam McDonald's in Pennsylvania, and this employee thought that he
looked like the photos that the police had distributed of

(02:56):
the shooter, and Mangioni was indeed then arrested. Police Now
they seemed pretty confident that he was the person they
had been looking for, and there were lots of different
signs that kind of led them to that belief. So,
for example, he was carrying a gun that was consistent
with the one used in the murder. And he also

(03:16):
had a handwritten document on him which accused health care
companies for putting profits above care. And we knew that
whoever this person was that shot the healthcare CEO probably
did have a really big issue with the way healthcare
companies are run in the US. I remember the bullets
of the gun had the words delayed, deny and depose

(03:39):
scratched on to the side of the bullets, and those
are phrases that are often used to criticize the tactics
used by insurers to avoid paying claims.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
There was definitely this huge wave of discussions about the
way that the US healthcare system operates, also about the
wages that executives are on the standing of these public companies.
These the shooter in some ways did get what they
wanted in terms of a discussion to be happening about it.
It was really it really did change corporate America.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah did. And so the fact that Luigi Mangioni had
this letter YEAH with him when police found.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Him, somewhat of a manifesto exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
And the note illustrated the police said, it illustrated ill
will toward corporate America. So again, there were lots of
different signs that led police to be quite confident that
Luigi Manngioni was the person they were looking for sure. Now,
since then, since he was arrested, he has been in
prison in New York and he has been in and
out of court I'm sure many of us have seen

(04:38):
the photos of you know, he's in the orange jumpsuit
appearing before court on several different occasions. And probably the
biggest update since The Daily Os last covered this is
the fact that he has pleaded not guilty.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
So let's talk about that. Though, because you've taken us
through the evidence, you've taken us through the CCTV footage,
it's hard to know how to talk about this properly
because there's obviously a legal process going on, but there's
a mountain of evidence that suggests that Mangioni is the killer.
But he's pleading not guilty. So does that mean he's
saying he didn't do it or that they have the

(05:13):
wrong person? Like, what does that plea actually mean?

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah? I was so interested in this and I went
on a huge deep dive because obviously in America, just
like in Australia, you can be arrested for a crime,
but there is a presumption of innocence, so you were
considered innocent until you are otherwise proven guilty.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Which is his status right now.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Exactly. So, Luigi Mangioni has not been found guilty. There
is all of this evidence, but he hasn't been found guilty,
and I was really interested in is he saying that
they have the wrong person despite all of this mountain
of evidence that we just briefly went through, and I
couldn't really find too much except for his lawyers constantly

(05:51):
saying that he's entitled to the presumption of innocence and
he should be treated that way. And they have a
huge issue at the moment with both the media, the public,
and also how prosecutors are acting, saying that everyone is
treating him as though he is guilty, but he hasn't
gone through the court process yet. But in terms of
whether they're saying they have the wrong person, I couldn't

(06:13):
find anything where they said exactly that it's possible that
maybe Luigi man Geroni just wants to go through the
court process and wants his lawyers to talk about all
of the reasons this.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Is the thing, right It gaves them a platform, exactly,
and we've seen that with other high profile criminals over
the years, particularly in America, and the way that their
justice system can operate is even if he does have
a guilty verdict handed down, that could almost guarantee he's
going to appeal that and this process could last, you know,
a decade, and it keeps giving somebody who's alleged of

(06:46):
a crime or convicted of a crime a chance to
actually have a platform to engage in fundraising, to engage
in talking about the things that they so firmly believe
in that they are convicted to have killed for it.
It's a really interesting quirk of the system. And on
one hand, I get it. Everyone is entitled to a
fair trial and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

(07:08):
But he's facing some pretty serious charges, right.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right though, that he has
this platform at the moment, and by pleading not guilty. Again,
I'm not saying that he's definitely guilty, but by pleading
not guilty, he is stretching out how long the media
and the world will be paying attention to him and
this case, can.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
We just go back one step? So what exactly has
he been charged with?

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, so he's facing multiple charges at both a state
and a federal level. So just like in Australia, there
are criminal laws at both a state and federal level,
and if you are alleged to commit a crime, you
will be prosecuted at either a state level or a
federal level, or both right, And so in this case,
Mangioni is accused of breaking laws at both the state

(07:52):
and federal level. He's actually accused of breaking laws in
two states, in Pennsylvania where the police found him, and
in New York where he committed the murder, and then
also at the federal level. So I'll go through the
state charges first, and I'll just focus on the ones
in New York because those are the main ones. So
in New York he is accused of first degree murder yep,

(08:14):
and also murder as an act of terrorism. I remember
when that charge came out that generated a lot of conversation,
the fact that this is being considered an act of terrorism.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
And just quickly, the difference between those charges from those
discussions I think you and I had on the pot
a couple of months ago, is because prosecutors want to
argue that there was this ideological driver exactly behind the murder.
So they've got both bases covered. Yes, this person was
killed because they were killed, but also they were killed
for this reason exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
So those are the two main charges in New York,
but there are also several others there and then on
top of that, there are also the federal charges, which
includes use of a firearm to commit murder and then
also interstate stalking resulting in death. And now it's those
two charges I just spoke about at the federal level
that we're talking about today because it's those ones that

(09:03):
could result in the death penalty.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
And so the reason you and I are talking about
this on the podcast today is the introduction of the
prosecution saying we want to pursue the death penalty. I
didn't know that the death penalty was still widely used
across America.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, well, I guess because in Australia it's not used
at all. Do you know when it was last legal
in Australia seventies close nineteen eighty five. Okay, well, so
what's that exactly forty years. Yeah, so it's been a
long time, but in the US it hasn't. So I
was interested to learn that the death penalty is actually
still legal in twenty four which is nearly half of

(09:40):
the US states. But again that's at a state level,
and worth mentioning that in New York it's not legal,
so the death penalty can't be used against Luigi Mangioni
in the state charges that we were talking about, But
at a federal level it's only recently been made legal again.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Which I'm assuming has been a recent chain with the
change of administrations, right.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, it's interesting that it is such a political issue
in the US. So in July twenty twenty one, just
a few months after becoming president, Joe Biden ordered a
pause on the death penalty at a federal level, essentially
saying that everyone deserves to be treated fairly and humanly. Now,
he introduced that after Donald Trump in the previous four

(10:23):
years had obviously been president and there had been a
rise in the number of crimes that had resulted in
the death penalty. So Joe Biden put a pause on
the death penalty. Then Donald Trump is voted into the
White House again, and on his first day earlier in
January this year, Donald Trump signs an executive order on
his first day to restore the death penalty.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
And so just quickly to kind of catch everybody up,
this executive order, it's this power given to the president
to pass a law that doesn't require the approval of Congress.
Why did he use this quite extraordinary power of the
president to action that on day one.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
The reason that they gave in the actual executive order,
they said, capital punishment, which is another word used to
describe the death penalty, is an essential tool for deterring
and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes
and acts of lethal violence against American citizens. So they're
basically saying, this is the ultimate deterrent to anyone thinking

(11:21):
of committing any crime like this.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
And to President Trump's credit, it was him delivering on
a campaign promise and he won the election across the
board in the US, and he said he was going
to be tough on crime in this way. But now
this could be used against Luigi Mangioni.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, So on Tuesday this week, the US Attorney General,
who is the country's chief legal advisor, so basically like
the top lawyer, recommended that the death penalty be used
in the case of Luigi Mangioni. So the Attorney General
said the murder was quote a premeditated, cold blooded assassination
of an innocent man and father of two young children.

(11:57):
And she said that this murder was an act of
political violence. And you also added that quote because the
murder took place in public, with bystanders nearby. It could
have posed a grave risk of death to additional persons, right.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
And obviously this is still in the context of the
trial needing to take place. It's not the Attorney General
saying this is going to be the result. It's them
saying that this is what the prosecution is going to pursue.
So what's happening now then?

Speaker 1 (12:24):
So Mangioni is due to next appear in a federal
court in New York on April eighteenth, So that's just
over two weeks away. Now that is a hearing. It's
not the actual start to the trial, but it is
a step closer to the trial taking place. I don't
know when exactly that trial starts. We don't have that
date yet.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
There are a lot of details they're going to need
to figure out. One of the big contentions they're going
to have to decide on is can you find a
jury of people who haven't particularly been tainted in their
view of this person. I assume the answers that will
probably be no, and it'll be a judge only trial.
Then there's a whole other issues that come along with that.
Retrial bit to these sorts of cases can take months.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Well, that would be interesting if it was a judge
only trial, because for the death penalty, usually it would
be up to the jury, not a judge, to determine
if the accused should be sentenced to death, and then
that decision has to be unanimous amongst all of the jurors,
So that could completely change things. If this is a
judge only.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Trial, there might have to be a decision made by
the prosecution do they pursue a judge only trial or
try and go for the death penalty with a jury
where they know that the defense Mangoni's team could argue
that there's no way to find a jury that hasn't
quite a preconceived idea of this man exactly.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
And that's something that the defense has spoken a lot
about that they don't believe that Mangioni will be able
to have a fair trial.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
And so have we heard anything from Mangioni's camp since
this announcement, particularly about the death penalty.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, Mangioni's lawyer did put out a statement they said,
by seeking to murder Luigi Mangioni, the Justice Department has
moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric. So some pretty
strong words.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
There really interesting story, Billy. This is one we're going
to be talking about in the news for dare I
say probably years, So this will this will take a
long time, but it's important to kind of understand how
this process is going to evolve, especially in a country
with some unique quirks to their digital system like America. Billy,
thank you so much, Thank you, and thank you for

(14:24):
joining us on the Daily Ods this morning. We really
appreciate your support. As always, if you want to tune
in to another podcast from us, we'll be back in
the afternoon with some headlines. Until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

(14:46):
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
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