Hero or Villain?

Dear Readers, Laws have what validity we breathe into them.  The danger is we are devaluing the law, adding a gloss of moral judgment to statute.

Murder is a crime against society.  Even in a biblical sense, back to Cain and Abel, this was well known.  However, there is a moral ambiguity of forgiveness in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Every death by unnatural causes (homicide) is not a crime.  In war, death is almost a goal and we even accept collateral damage as just a product of war.  Defense of self and third persons is another time-honored defense to homicide.  In New York, it is our acceptance of it is twice being tested.

Daniel Penny was riding on a New York subway in May of 2023.  Jordan Neely came into the car yelling and demanding money from the other passengers.  Mr. Neely’s sad back story is that his mother was killed and stuffed into a suitcase when he was a teenager; his adult life spiraled into drug abuse, psychiatric treatment, and homelessness.

Some portray Mr. Penny as a hero.  He put Mr. Neely in a 6-minute chokehold killing him, purportedly to prevent harm to his fellow travelers.  He went to trial and the jury acquitted him, after the presiding judge dismissed the more serious charge.  This got Mr. Penny the performative triumph of attending the Army vs. Navy football game in a skybox as a guest of the President-elect and Vice-President-elect.

Luigi Mangione led a privileged life, the opposite of Mr. Neely.  Penn grad, upper-class parents, and all the accouterments that come with wealth and status.  In April, he went underground, losing touch with his mother.  He had been living in severe pain from a mangled spine, together with his mother’s health, fueling a simmering hatred of private insurance.  

Prompted by this, he hunted down Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, shooting him dead in Manhattan in broad daylight.  He used a “ghost gun,” an untraceable 3-D printed weapon with no serial number and 3-D bullets emblazoned with the words “delay,” “deny,” “depose.”

Mr. Thompson was also wildly privileged.  He had helped design AI algorithms with the expressed purpose of (fraudulently) denying valid health care claims of United’s insured.  Money rolled in, as his scheme profited his company to the detriment of its insured.

Where Mr. Penny received a hero’s welcome, Mr. Mangione’s fate remains uncertain.  GoFundMe contributions are pouring into his defense fund.  Presumably, his attorney will attempt to stretch the concept of self-defense to encompass the murder of Mr. Thompson, framing it as defending United’s powerless insured.

People are angry.  We pay premiums to health insurance companies to prevent the economic disaster of serious health incidents.  The insurance companies are legally, and morally, bound to provide life and health-saving coverage.  Yet, they engage in a pre-authorization poker game of denying claims, waiting for the creaky justice system to correct their fraud.  The law takes time and people die waiting for authorization for care.  Or, they go bankrupt (or hospitals absorb the risk) desperately paying for needed care.  Meanwhile, CEOs like Mr. Thompson get rich on salary, bonuses, and stock options, when the insurance company saves money because an insured dies waiting for care.

Mr. Mangione carried out his deed with precision.  He managed to evade capture for several days, due to creative feints and planting of false leads.  He was ultimately captured in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s. 

Pennsylvania Governor (Democrat) Josh Shapiro condemned the streak of “vigilante justice” sweeping our country stating, “We do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint . . . In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilante justice.”  To him, the hero is the person at McDonald’s securing Mr. Mangione’s arrest.

Our health care system is broken and politicians don’t really seem to want to fix it.  Private insurance is a blessing when it works, but a robotic heartless profit-hungry killer, when it doesn’t.  Health insurance CEOs are nothing but free-market villains.

These homicides offer a unique take on the legal limits of an acceptable killing under our law.  Mr. Neely is a tragic figure, exemplifying how society discards troubled souls.  His killer walks free as a hero.  It remains to be seen if Mr. Mangione receives the same status as Mr. Penny, as an avatar for our ire directed at the healthcare industry. 

Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the former Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami.  Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000.  E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.com.