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Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

Then, this week, there was the news that Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson

Isn't it pretty obvious it's him? Is there any possibility he was framed or something.

McDonald's plays a big role because it also happens to be extremely popular and has many locations all over America. It's brand is an iconic and big as ever.

It also shows how America has a sort of love-hate relationship with fast-food. We know it's unhealthy and overpriced but we cannot stop eating it.

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It’s an established practice in journalism to describe accused who haven’t been convicted as “alleged” criminals, regardless of how damning the evidence is.

The legal basis of this is a fear of libel lawsuits. But I think even when a libel lawsuit is extremely unlikely the practice is still followed - out of an abundance of caution, out of convention, or perhaps out of principle - that is, out of deference to the presumption of innocence on a fundamental level.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence

Journalists generally say "alleged", even when it's real obvious someone did the crime, in order to limit liability. They don't want to risk the off chance that the person is found not guilty and then comes after the journalists for libel.

The people who would know that best are the people investigating, prosecuting, and judging him. In real life, not through rumor and media (social or otherwise).

I’m not aware of evidence to the contrary, but then I wouldn’t be, because I’m not involved with the investigation or the trial. Neither is most anyone commenting publicly right now.

It’s alleged until it’s proven, and in the US that’s a formal process that concludes with a guilty plea or verdict.

Precisely zero reliable evidence has been presented that ties him to the place or the hit, as of right now.

It's anything but obvious. What is obvious is that NYC law enforcement had tremendous pressure to apprehend and prosecute a suspect quickly, and that they had precisely nothing to go on before he was miraculously identified by a random person. You may also recall that there is no imagery of the assassin's face during the hit.

Of course someone who planned such a hit so carefully would keep carrying around the murder weapon for several days, across state lines, as well as a printed hardcopy of a manifesto establishing motive (he worked in IT). Very little of what the police have claimed thus far has made any logical sense.

Innocent until proven guilty.

Obvious how?

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