Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia.com,
Luigi Mangione, the man whose assassination of a health insurance executive turned him into a folk hero to many on the left, shocked the country on Friday when he finally admitted to the killing and changed his plea to guilty.
"I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan. I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death of bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal," Mangione told the judge.
He admitted to stalking his victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in the weeks before he gunned him down. The guilty plea locks in a consequence few outside the courtroom seemed to notice at first: a state court can no longer try Mangione for murder.
Mangione had spent more than a year cultivating an image as a martyr willing to fight the system to the end.
So why did he suddenly fold and admit everything?
According to Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley, the answer has nothing to do with a guilty conscience. Turley discussed the plea with host Charlie Hurt on Fox & Friends Weekend on Saturday, and argued the move was a calculated legal gamble aimed at avoiding a life sentence rather than any sign of remorse.
Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stal
