Donald Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi’s call for Luigi Mangione to receive the death penalty is a dangerous political intervention in support of the indefensible.

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.

  • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
    14·
    6 days ago

    The state killing its own citizens is never morally defensible.

    It’s even more egregious when political influence tries to exert pressure on the legal process in an effort to prejudice that verdict.

    • yarr@feddit.nlEnglish
      314·
      6 days ago

      The state killing its own citizens is never morally defensible.

      A citizen killing another citizen is never morally defensible, and yet, here we are.

      • rudyharrelson@lemmy.radioEnglish
        7·
        6 days ago

        A citizen killing another citizen is never morally defensible

        That’s just plain not true. There are situations that are not just morally defensible, but legally justifiable.

        For example: If an active shooter (a citizen) is killing people (or threatening to kill people), any given citizen is morally and legally justified with taking the shooter’s life to preserve the lives of others.

        See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_self-defense