Luigi Mangione state murder trial now in limbo following federal guilty plea, double jeopardy claim

NEW YORK— Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial was pushed back indefinitely Monday amid his double jeopardy argument to get the case tossed following his unexpected guilty plea to federal stalking charges in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

In a brief order, Justice Gregory Carro adjourned Mangione’s next court appearance, ordering him to appear on Dec. 10 and effectively placing the trial in limbo. The case had been set to start with jury selection in Manhattan Supreme Court on Sept. 8.

Mangione made headlines Friday when he admitted to stalking and surveilling Thompson with the intent to kill him in his separate federal case. He did so without being offered a deal from the Justice Department or any assurance of leniency in exchange for taking responsibility.

“On the morning of December 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” the Maryland man said in Manhattan Federal Court.

With the charges carrying a potential life sentence, the plea could send Mangione to prison for decades — the price he must pay, as his lawyers apparently see it, to potentially one day walk free. A conviction on second-degree murder charges in the state case could ultimately subject Mangione to a prison term that would run consecutively to his federal term.

The defense’s play was made clear soon after the federal plea hearing on Friday, when Mangione’s legal team filed a motion asking Carro to dismiss the state murder case brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. They argued that resolving the federal case automatically triggered New York’s double jeopardy statute, necessitating the state’s case be thrown out.

—New York Daily News

DOJ plans to deploy 1,000 monitors to watch midterm elections

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department plans to send 1,000 monitors to watch voting during the midterm elections in November, a historic figure for a Republican administration, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said.

Dhillon, who oversees DOJ’s civil rights division, said the monitors’ job will be to observe whether elections are being conducted fairly. The announcement comes as President Donald Trump— facing sagging poll numbers — repeatedly warns that Democrats will “cheat” in order to retake control of Congress.

Dhillon described her plans as consistent with DOJ policy in previous elections, saying in an interview Monday at Bloomberg’s Washington office that “we just did it in the primary. We will do it to the tune of approximately 1,000 election monitors in the November election. This is something that DOJ does.”

The planned deployment comes amid growing apprehension across the country about federal interference at the polls. Critics fear the administration might send armed agents to locations near polling sites.

Dhillon, 57, said the role of the monitors is to observe and follow up with any investigations, not to intervene.

The department recently sent monitors to watch the polls in four Democratic-leaning cities in Michigan that are home to the state’s largest Black, Arab American and college-student populations. The agency also sent election monitors to Arizona during that state’s primary in July.

Separately, Dhillon has waged an aggressive and controversial battle to obtain voting records from states, including nonpublic information such as partial Social Security numbers and other data in an effort she said is focused on ensuring that people are properly registered to vote. So far, the department has lost nearly two dozen lawsuits out of more than 30 it’s filed to obtain the data.

—Bloomberg News

A Compton gang war and bitter revenge plot led to Tupac Shakur’s slaying, DA says

Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down near the Las Vegas strip in a killing that rocked the rap world, the trial of the man prosecutors allege did everything but pull the trigger got underway Monday with new revelations.

Nevada prosecutors allege Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a one-time Compton gang member, killed Shakur as revenge for an attack on his nephew hours earlier and are using Davis’ own words in interviews and a book he co-authored as evidence.

In opening statements, prosecutors said an ugly gang rivalry on the streets of Compton led to the slaying of Shakur, a famed rapper and actor, who died six days after he was shot.

The Sept. 7, 1996, shooting, they said, was rooted in a war between Southside Crips-Burris Street, led by Davis, and Mob Piru, a gang long associated with Death Row Records. Shakur was closely associated with Death Row, and the record company’s boss, Marion “Suge” Knight, was inside his car the night he was attacked.

The rivalry grew after the Southside Crips became the West Coast security for Sean “Diddy” Combs’ record label, prosecutors said.

Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said that bad blood came to a head at a Mike Tyson fight that night in Las Vegas. He showed video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson. Lane, a Mob Piru, had spotted Anderson in the MGM Grand hotel lobby. Months earlier, Anderson stole Lane’s Death Row Records chain in the Lakewood Mall during an attack.

“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Palal said. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”

Michael Sanft, Davis’s defense attorney, told jurors there will be no evidence linking his client to the shooting. “There are no facts to point to Keffe — not one,” he said. “You’re going to hear about this over and over again.”

—Los Angeles Times

Ebola outbreak deadliest in Congo's history as death toll passes 2,300

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The death toll from the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reached 2,325, making it the deadliest in the country's history, the Public Health Institute in Kinshasa reported on Monday.

In the Congo's previous largest Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020, 2,299 people died.

The number of confirmed cases has risen to 4,945, according to the institute. It is the 17th documented Ebola outbreak in the country of around 112 million.

The only larger outbreak of the disease occurred in West Africa, where more than 28,500 cases were recorded and 11,310 people died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016.

The World Health Organization fears that the current outbreak in Congo could reach unprecedented proportions. According to the WHO, during the first three months of the current outbreak, the number of cases and deaths was already several times higher than during the comparable first three months of the West African outbreak.

The current outbreak in Congo was reported in mid-May. It is particularly difficult to contain because it involves the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is currently neither a specific vaccine nor a specific treatment.

Clinical trials of two antiviral treatments have been under way since early July. Given the severity of the outbreak, authorities also want to determine whether the virus may have mutated.

—dpa