Dershowitz: How I would defend Luigi Mangione
by Alan Dershowitz, opinion contributor - 12/23/24 8:30 AM ET
Ever since the arrest of Luigi Mangione for the cold-blooded murder of Brian Thompson, I have been repeatedly asked how I would defend him if I were his lawyer.
The question is not surprising, since I have been involved in over 30 murder and attempted murder cases over my 60-year career, some of them involving high-profile defendants such as OJ Simpson, and several death row inmates.
The honest answer is that I don’t know — at least not yet. Nor should his current excellent lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, because she has not yet had an opportunity to confer at length with her client.
It is important to remember that a lawyer in a criminal case is merely an agent. It is the defendant who must decide which defenses to raise, whether to plea bargain, whether to testify and especially whether to raise a defense such as insanity.
The first thing a lawyer must do is confer with her client, evaluate his competence, present a realistic assessment of the case and analyze the available options. If the lawyer disagrees with the client, she may decline to take the case, but she may not impose any strategy on the client that does not meet his approval.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/5051868-dershowitz-how-i-would-defend-luigi-mangione/
