On Friday, Luigi Mangione pled guilty to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
As my colleague Teri Christoph detailed:
Mangione had the opportunity to address the court, and he used that time to explain his version of events from December 4, 2024.
"After years of enduring severe pain from a broken back…I learned UnitedHealthcare will hold an investor’s conference,” he began. He then explained that he searched for the location of the investor conference being attended by Thompson.
READ MORE: 'I Knew What I Was Doing': Luigi Mangione Drops a Bombshell Guilty Plea
If Mangione's confession is to be taken seriously, then every human suffering catastrophic pain has the right to seek out and destroy the person who he or she thinks is the cause of their suffering. I am in pain and you are at fault; therefore, it justifies me taking your life. It's an amoral code devoid of any respect for human life or dignity, and carries the assumption that there is no higher authority to which one must answer for his or her actions.
Mangione exhibited not a shred of remorse or regret in his brief confession. His attorneys did no better, taking to the court steps not to express sadness, but to paint Mangione as a victim of the legal system. Mangione's attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo fed this narrative:
Today is a solemn and significant day. With today's guilty plea, Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson, arising from the events of December 4, 2024, outside of the UnitedHealthcare Investor Conference here in Midtown Manhattan.
Accepted responsibility? Legally, yes, and only to try and skirt life in prison. Agnifilo painted it as "one single incident," and decried the legal system she purports to represent, which allows the federal government and other states to try Mangione for his willful murder of Thompson.
WATCH:
"With today's guilty plea, Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson," Luigi Mangione's attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo announced outside the courthouse on Friday.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 14, 2026
Agnifilo said Mangione has been treated unfairly, and that “he endured years… pic.twitter.com/dxBIQrRuM7
"With today's guilty plea, Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson," Luigi Mangione's attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo announced outside the courthouse on Friday.
Agnifilo said Mangione has been treated unfairly, and that “he endured years of severe debilitating pain following a broken back while struggling to navigate our healthcare and health insurance systems.”
Mangione is facing a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.
Mangione is regretful of one thing: he got caught. Let us pray between now and his December sentencing that his lack of remorse, and the warped morality of his legal team, will factor into his receiving the maximum sentence.
Many have also been following the story of Baby Gabriel, a child being carried by surrogate mother McKenna West for a California couple, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed. While in utero, the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a serious congenital heart defect which is almost always fatal without immediate treatment. Gilkar and Ahmed insisted that McKenna, now 20 weeks into the pregnancy, abort the baby. An appointment to murder the child was scheduled in Seattle, but McKenna was tormented over the prospect. McKenna spoke with Live Action founder and president Lila Rose about how she came to the decision to not go through with the abortion.
WATCH:
Wow. 28-year-old surrogate McKenna reveals an abortion was scheduled in Seattle for Baby Gabriel.
— Anna Lulis (@annamlulis) August 13, 2026
She escaped to Texas to give birth to the little boy, saving his life.
“His life doesn’t have a price tag on it” pic.twitter.com/55jxxwM6x7
As RedState covered, when McKenna decided to flee to Texas in order to save the baby, TX Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened, ensuring that Baby Gabriel would be born in Texas, and that when he was delivered, he would receive the necessary care to correct the congenital heart defect.
While AG Paxton worked to ensure the child had a chance at life, he has chosen not to take a side on who ultimately receives custody of Baby Gabriel. Until that is decided, McKenna West is banned from contact with Baby Gabriel, while Gilkar and Ahmed are now in Texas, allegedly doting over a child who they considered too broken to have a chance at life.
Day #3 of baby Gabriel not in the custody of McKenna but instead under the control of the genetic parents who wanted him aborted and had refused to promise life saving medical care for him.
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) August 14, 2026
The campaign to paint McKenna West as a criminal and the contracting parents as poor, put-upon saints who are being dragged through the mud has begun. This NBC News segment dehumanizes McKenna West as a "gestational carrier."
You cannot hate the media enough.
WATCH:
NBC paints baby Gabriel's biological parents as pure victims, even though they demanded their son be aborted.
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) August 14, 2026
They repeatedly call McKenna West a "gestational carrier" rather than the mother who fought to keep this baby alive.
Newsflash for NBC: The baby would not be here if…
NBC paints baby Gabriel's biological parents as pure victims, even though they demanded their son be aborted.
They repeatedly call McKenna West a "gestational carrier" rather than the mother who fought to keep this baby alive.
Newsflash for NBC: The baby would not be here if it wasn't for McKenna West's bravery and the help she received from pro-life leaders like @KenPaxtonTX and @LiveAction.
Then there is this glossy profile from People, where the attorney for the contracting parents, Gilkar and Ahmed, paints West's actions as "baseless attempts to interfere," and pretends as if it was barely four days ago that Gilkar and Ahmed intended to see Baby Gabriel eradicated before he even took a breath.
A newborn at the center of a surrogacy dispute is now in the custody of the California couple who intended to raise him, according to their attorney.
Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed’s son was born Wednesday, Aug. 12, in Texas after being diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a serious congenital heart condition affecting the development of the left side of the heart, during the pregnancy.
The baby is now receiving specialized medical care at a tertiary care center, attorney Lee Budner, who represents Gilkar and Ahmed, said in a statement Thursday, according to CBS News.
Medical care that would not have been received had surrogate mother McKenna West not fled to Texas.
“Our clients’ son was born yesterday morning and he is now in their physical custody while he receives expert medical care at a tertiary care center,” Budner said, per the outlet. “Thankfully, McKenna West’s baseless attempt to interfere with his medical care has been soundly rejected by the courts.”
Baseless attempt to interfere? Had West not interfered, the baby would have been aborted. For lawyers and these parents to conveniently dismiss this fact must require a seared conscience.
Budner said Gilkar and Ahmed are focused on their son’s health as he receives treatment.
“Right now, our clients are continuing to place their baby’s health and well-being first, following the advice of the baby’s medical team, as they always have and just as any loving parent would,” he said, according to CBS News.
This is sickening. In some states, this type of behavior would be considered parental abuse. Baby Gabriel should be in the care of state family services until the legal wrangling is complete, but it seems the surrogacy contract determines these boundaries, not what is sound or right.
Benjamin Franklin said, "What can laws do without morals?" In both these legal cases, any basis for morality was thrown out the window, which is what precipitated the amoral act of murder based on anger and outrage, and codified murder based on a warped concept of what embodies human dignity. We will not be able to live long in this upside-down world. Morality must undergird our laws, otherwise our laws are useless.
If we do not course correct and quickly, our society is lost.
