Lawyers for Luigi Manjoné, accused of the shooting of an insurance company CEO in Midtown, Manhattan, are asking the judge to prohibit the Department of Justice from demanding the death penalty for his client, as they claim the Department violated the protocol.

The decision to demand the death penalty for Luigi Manjon is entirely political and unprecedented, his defense group wrote on Friday in an appeal to the Ministry of Justice requesting a ban on conducting a capital criminal case.

"When the United States plans to kill one of its citizens, it must comply with legal and domestic procedures," the 33-page statement said at the beginning. "Manjone is now requesting the Court's intervention, not only because the government has not followed these procedures, but also because it has completely abandoned them."

The petition accuses the Ministry of Justice of violating policy, misrepresenting aggravating factors, and ignoring the defense team's request to provide a full mitigating presentation on behalf of its client.

The 26-year-old Manjoné is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of a healthcare company, in Manhattan last year.

The defense stated that they were given only one opportunity to meet with the Capital Affairs Committee, which was organized by the previous presidential administration.

"Since the change of administration, the consultant has not been requested to submit materials and has not been offered the opportunity to meet with the Capital Affairs Committee, formed and existing by the current administration," the document says.

Himoya maslahatchisining fevral oyidagi elektron pochtasi e'tiborsiz qoldirildi va guruh o'lim jazosini talab qilish qarori haqida jurnalistdan xabar topdi, deyiladi arizada.

"If the death penalty were imposed in accordance with the policy, and not for the media, then the Prosecutor General would have given his instructions not in the form of a press release, but in the form of a post on Instagram, which would have actually launched a new government social media account," the statement says.

The defense argues that the state case weakens the federal interest in capital punishment.

"Although the new administration should be given greater freedom in developing new and different policies to help the American people, this does not include abandoning its death penalty protocol for the government's killing of a specific accused without complying with the law or established procedures," the statement said.

In capital works, aggravating factors should prevail over mitigating factors. "It's not like that here," says the defense.

The petition also states that this case is a special case compared to other capital cases conducted by the Southern District of New York.

The petition states that in each of these cases, "the accused committed murder as part of a violent drug or racketeering enterprise, either for the purpose of developing the drug business or as part of a terrorist organization."

Neither of these factors applies to the Manjone case, which alleged that one person was harassing and killing another person.

"The main factor in the Prosecutor General's death sentence was not the facts of the case, but politics," the defense said.

The defense application was filed following a press release released by Bondy on April 1, which ordered the death penalty in this case to "implement President [Donald] Trump's agenda to stop the crime of violence and make America safer again."

"Due to the Attorney General's actions, Mr. Manjoné's relevant procedural rights have already been violated, and the government's actions have undermined the impartiality of the grand jury and disrupted the grand jury proceedings," the document states.

In addition to requesting the abolition of the judge's death penalty, the defense requires the Ministry of Justice to submit any documents related to the capital directive.

The defense also demands any contact between government officials and those supporting the death penalty or lobbying on behalf of business interests, given that Bondy repeatedly referred to the deceased's status as CEO.

"If the Ministry of Justice was forced to demand the death penalty due to any connections by or on behalf of any corporate interests, this applies to the conclusion that the death penalty is applied unreasonably," the statement says.

Although Manjoné's charges have been filed in a New York state court, no charges have been filed in the federal court yet. The court documents indicate that the federal case has not yet been initiated.

In the state case, he did not admit his guilt.

The Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to the request for clarification. Manzone's interests in both cases are represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mark Agnifilo, and Jacob Kaplan of Agnifilo Intrater Company.

An experienced federal affairs consultant, Moskowitz, is Abraham Moskowitz, co-founder of Colson Ginsberg & Schulman.

Author: Emily Saul

Source: law.com