The EU must offer asylum to Luigi Mangione
The DOJ's pursuit of the death penalty against Mangione poses a grave threat to his human rights.
In blatant violation of his inviolable right to life, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced today that federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for murder suspect and folk hero Luigi Mangione.
“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,” Bondi announced in a press release.
Mangione is alleged to have killed another alleged killer, UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson. Critics allege that Thompson is responsible for the social murder of thousands of UnitedHealthcare customers by presiding over the repeated denial of insurance benefits that might have saved their lives. Mangione has pleaded not guilty, and has elsewhere written that “violence against those who lead us to such destruction is justified as self-defense.”
The Trump administration has “revived” the federal death penalty in the wake of Joe Biden, who commuted the majority of federal death row sentences to life terms in prison.
But capital punishment remains banned in most of the rest of the world — including the European Union. In a 2020, the EU declared that the death penalty “violates the inalienable right to life and is incompatible with human dignity.”
That statement also condemned the United States for maintaining capital punishment:
We regret that capital punishment continues to be applied in some states of the United States of America…We take this opportunity to call upon the Federal Government and upon those states of the United States which still apply the death penalty…to consider establishing a moratorium on the application of capital punishment, as a first step towards its complete abolition.
Crucially, the EU statement also declared that
Only a coordinated and continued action of each and every relevant actor, by means of all available instruments in all suitable fora, can ensure the success of our common goal: the universal abolition of capital punishment.
One of those instruments, of course, is asylum. The EU has a long tradition of accepting refugees faced with human rights violations, and Mangione clearly qualifies for that status. Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1350 declares “eligible for admission” as a refugee “nationals who…would face a real risk of suffering serious harm”; Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1347, meanwhile, stipulates that “serious harm…consists of: (a) the death penalty or execution”.
These rules are why the United States is not listed as a Safe Country of Origin (SCO) by most countries in the EU. Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland all exclude the US as an SCO, while Hungary specifically excludes specific states in the US where the death penalty is legal.
EU nations should be particularly sympathetic to Mangione’s plight since the overwhelming majority of them offer universal healthcare, which they also consider a basic human right.
But regardless of the merits of the case for or against Mangione, the death penalty remains an intolerably cruel and unusual punishment. Given its commitment to using “all available instruments” towards the abolition of capital punishment, the EU should publicly condemn the prosecution of Luigi Mangioni; should immediately offer him political asylum in defense of his basic right to life; and should negotiate with the US Department of Justice to secure his release.
Thanks for reading! My blog is supported entirely by readers like you. To receive new posts and support my work, why not subscribe?
Refer enough friends to this site and you can read paywalled content for free!
And if you liked this post, why not share it?