Key Highlights
- 13 decision in United States v.
- Gomez — which found that a California law on assault with a deadly weapon does not meet the "crime of violence" threshold due to legal technicalities.
- The panel found that armed assaults can be committed recklessly, meaning the defendant should have known the act carried a risk of danger, not just purposefully, meaning the defendant intended to harm the victim. In Mangione's case, the underlying alleged "crime of violence" is stalking.
- "It’s like a series of dominos — the only way that the federal government can get to a death penalty charge in their case is if the murder was committed during the course of a violent felony," said Joshua Ritter, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney and Fox News contributor.
- "And the reason that they need that is because they need what’s called a federal hook to get them federal jurisdiction.
