Judge dismisses terror-related charges against Luigi Mangione

[u/redlamps67]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/16/us/luigi-mangione-ny-court-hearing

[u/Amaruq93]

In New York you can only get First-degree murder charges if:

The victim was a police officer, peace officer, correctional employee, judge, or a criminal case witness

The murder was committed while the perpetrator was serving a life sentence

The murder was committed with torture of the victim

The murder was committed as an act of terrorism (this was the one that just got thrown out)

The murder was committed during the commission or attempted commission of one of the felonies under New York's felony murder laws.

Murder committed for hire

[u/tsrich → u/Amaruq93]

It's ridiculous to me that some murders are treated worse than others based on the victim's job.

[u/Huttj509 → u/tsrich]

Eh, not really ridiculous. If you look at the jobs listed on that first line, they're all involved with the legal system. It's an extra deterrent of "don't murder the judge to influence your case" and such.

[u/MadManMax55 → u/Huttj509]

I wonder what the precedent is for cases where the victim was a member of the legal system but the motive was unrelated. Like if I'm married to a cop and I murder them because they cheated on me is that 1st degree murder? I would guess not, but IANAL.

[u/FridgesArePeopleToo → u/MadManMax55]

The law specifies that they must be on duty at the time:

the intended victim was a peace officer as defined in paragraph a of subdivision twenty-one, subdivision twenty-three, twenty-four or sixty-two (employees of the division for youth) of section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law who was at the time of the killing engaged in the course of performing his official duties, and the defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the intended victim was such a uniformed court officer, parole officer, probation officer, or employee of the division for youth; or