Sympathy for the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson could save him from a guilty verdict, an expert has suggested as cynical support for Luigi Mangione continues to grow.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told Newsweek that jurors may be led by the public’s reaction to the case, threatening to undermine justice and the rule of law as outpourings of support fester online.

‘The evidence against Mangione is strong, but he has engendered a lot of sympathy. The case presents a real risk of jury nullification,’ he told the outlet.

Nullification refers to when the jury gives a not guilty verdict even though they believe there is enough evidence to convict the accused, for instance if they feel sympathy for them.

While there is precedent of jurors being removed over evidence of intent to nullify the law, states vary. The Sixth Amendment grants the accused an inviolable right to jury determination, without interference from a trial judge no matter the evidence.

Rahmani added that ‘advanced’ developments in forensics and digital evidence may make it hard for Mangione’s lawyer to get an acquittal without jury nullification.

Support continues to mount for the man accused of shooting and killing father-of-two Brian Thompson, 50, outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4.

Luigi Mangione was arrested five days later, after disappearing from the scene having allegedly left cryptic messages on bullet casings that appeared to mimic language slamming the health insurance industry as a whole.

But in the wake of his arrest, ‘wanted’ posters in New York have sparked fears of a looming copycat attack, and internet ghouls have shared experiences denouncing the health insurance industry and their support for the so-called ‘hot assassin’.

As prisoners at the State Correctional Institution in Huntington, PA where he is being held were heard shouting ‘Free Luigi’ and decrying his conditions inside, fans raised $67,000 to cover the wealthy college graduate’s legal fees ahead of trial. 

Luigi Mangione was arrested on Monday after police received a tip from a McDonald’s around 233 miles (375km) away from the scene, in Altoona, Pennsylvania. 

Public outbursts of support for the killer emerged before Mangione was named as a suspect, with online commentators turning to share their own negative experiences of the health insurance industry and Thompson’s firm, UnitedHealthcare.

Sympathy for Mangione has been in focus since his naming by police. A ‘manifesto’ found in his backpack shared his discontent for the American healthcare system, and former associates said he had suffered from degenerative disc disease linked to a surfing injury, prompting him to undergo risky spinal fusion surgery.

Nonetheless, there is no indication Mangione was ever insured by UnitedHealthcare, a senior New York City police official said in an interview Thursday with NBC New York. 

Mangione, who was charged in a felony arrest earlier this week, is now set to appear in an Altoona court on December 23 for a preliminary hearing related to state charges.

So-called fans of Mangione have gone so far as to set up GoFundMe crowdfunders for the suspect, one already raising $67,000 of a $200,000 target to help with his legal fees.

GoFundMe has shut down multiple pages created to support the accused, saying in a statement: ‘GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes. 

‘The fundraisers have been removed from our platform and all donors have been refunded.’

One page’s description read: ‘Legal defense for he who shall not be named wink, wink’

Inmates at the center where he is being held joined the chorus of voices of support on Wednesday, shouting at reporters ‘Luigi’s conditions suck’ and ‘Free Luigi’.

Prisoners rallied that the food was ‘terrible’ and ‘BS’.

Alarming ‘wanted’ posters of top healthcare executives meanwhile sprung up across New York, prompting police to issue a bulleting warning leaders of the rising threats.

Video showed ‘wanted’ signs featuring other healthcare corporate leaders plastered across traffic control boxes in Manhattan.

Posters were erected on Canal Street – one of Manhattan’s busiest thoroughfares – flanked with the red and black words: ‘Wanted. Denying medical care for corporate profit. Health care CEOs should not feel safe.’ 

The signs also included the phrase suspected shooter Luigi Mangione allegedly wrote on the bullets found at the crime scene – ‘Deny. Defend. Depose.’

The alliterative trio of words reference a book by Jay Feinman’s titled ‘Delay, Defend, Deny: Why insurance company don’t pay claims, and what you can do about it.’

A New York Police Department bulletin issued Tuesday emphasized the heightened risk on healthcare executives following Thompson’s slaying, reported ABC News.

‘Both prior to and after the suspected perpetrator’s identification and arrest, some online users across social media platforms reacted positively to the killing, encouraged future targeting of similar executives, and shared conspiracy theories regarding the shooting,’ the bulletin said.

On Twitter, users jumped on LinkedIn postings of major firms advertising for protection roles, worryingly hinting at the opportunity for another attack. 

Seattle residents found a disturbing message published on an electronic traffic sign along a busy highway on Thursday, reading: ‘One less CEO, many more to go’.

State officials confirmed to Komo News that the sign did not belong to them, but a private construction contractor.

The sign on Highway 99, near Dexter Avenue, has since been removed, leaving the owner a mystery.

TikTok users garnered huge interest sharing vapid videos of themselves praising the suspect’s good looks and demanding he be set free.

One TikTok user said ‘I like a bad, bad boy’, adding: ‘Me finding out Luigi Mangione is a six pack, Pokémon loving, Carly Rae Jepsen listening, educated, sexy Italian man.’ 

Another said: ‘Why is it always ‘lock up Luigi Mangioni’? Why is it always, you know, ‘put Luigi Mangioni in handcuffs’? When it could be, ‘Luigi Mangioni locks me down’. What if he put my in handcuffs. Hmm? Have we considered that one?’ 

A third said: ‘The alleged UnitedHealthcare shooter could take me out. On a date or with a gun – up to him. I wouldn’t say no to either.’ And a third posted an image of Mangione outside his extradition hearing, saying: ‘He looks so good, I’m sorry.’

And a mocked-up cover of Time magazine has featured Mangione as Person Of The Year with the tagline ‘Healthcare revolutionary, leading the charge to transform global health.’ 

Social media users were quick to comb Mangione’s public profiles, identifying a Goodreads page filled with quotes about health and medication.

‘Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness,’ read one excerpt from a Kaczynski quote on Mangione’s Goodreads page.

‘The concept of ‘mental health’ in our society is defined largely by the extent to which an individual behaves in accord with the needs of the system and does so without showing signs of stress,’ read another. 

Mangione, a computer science major at at the University of Pennsylvania, appeared to find inspiration from Kaczynski, quoting extensively from Industrial Society and Its Future on his Goodreads page. 

He also included excerpts from authors and thinkers ranging from Socrates and Emperor-cum-Stoic Marcus Aurelius to Aldous Huxley and Dr. Seuss, with a five-star rating for The Lorax.

Another criticized conservatives for increasing ‘the life-expectancy of those of us who live in ‘advanced’ countries,’ at the expense of society.

‘[They] have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world,’ the excerpt reads.

‘The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world.’

Twitter users noted his profile banner included a scan of lumbar spinal fusion, a risky procedure that involves joining discs to treat pain and a variety of chronic conditions.

Mangione’s Reddit posts reference a spinal condition called spondylolisthesis, which occurs when a fracture causes a vertebra to slip out of alignment. It can result in severe pain if the bone puts pressure on spinal nerves.

The condition, which can originate in childhood or from an injury, started negatively impacting Mangione’s life in recent years, according to his social media posts.

After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, he worked at the Santa Monica-based car-buying website TrueCar until 2023 and lived in Hawaii for some time starting in January 2022.

During a six-month stay at Surfbreak, a ‘co-living’ space in Honolulu, Mangione’s back pain worsened in part because of a surfing incident. 

Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for the owner and founder of Surfbreak, R.J. Martin, said Mangione had expressed growing concerns about the pain. In addition to missing out on recreational activities and exercise, he was worried about how it could affect romantic relationships.

‘That was definitely a theme in his time there,’ Ryan said. ‘He wasn’t a big complainer. So it wasn’t like he was bringing it up constantly. But the people who knew him knew this was a significant part of his life.’

Surgery is usually a last resort. Doctors warn that chronic back pain can significantly impact mental health, as well as the powerful painkillers used to treat it.

‘If you have underlying mental health issues — anxiety, depression — your pain can be worse because you have way more suffering,’ Dr. Padma Gulur, a pain specialist with Duke Health, said. ‘But, the second aspect is pain can push you into anxiety and depression.’

The killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson sparked an initial wave of apathy from healthcare professionals and patients, who shared negative experiences of the health insurance industry.

On TikTok, one user wrote: ‘I’m an ER nurse and the things I’ve seen dying patients get denied for by insurance makes me physically sick. I just can’t feel sympathy for him because of all of those patients and their families.’

Another user wrote on Twitter/X: ‘I saw the news of this literally while on the phone with UHC about them denying my prior authorization for medication. Wild stuff’

Analysis by ValuePenguin concluded UnitedHealthcare denies 32 per cent of claims, against the industry average for large health insurance companies of 16 per cent.

The assassination and frenzied criticism of UnitedHealthcare sparked wider debate about the state of the industry.

User Eric Gallion wrote: ‘We are taxed almost 40% and none of it covers our healthcare. We should all be demanding universal healthcare not fighting it.’

User Trampas added: ‘For profit insurance is a profiteering parasitic industry by definition.’

A sick tribute appeared outside the hotel where Mr Thompson was gunned down soon after the news circulated.

A balloon with a sign taped to it reading ‘CEO DOWN’ over the image of a smiling star and party poppers was found outside the Hilton Hotel.

The same image on the balloon was also shared on former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz’s BlueSky account. 

‘People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering,’ she wrote in a separate post.

‘As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the [people] in power who enable it.’