Luigi Mangione might actually be acquitted.

Not because he’s going to succeed in suppressing the damning evidence found in his backpack when he was arrested a year ago at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

No, if he’s acquitted, it will be because he’s already succeeded in the carnival of American criminal justice. To many, Mangione is a hero. And a sex symbol.

But let’s start with the law. Mangione, who allegedly murdered Brian Thompson, chief executive of the health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, is currently taking part in a pretrial suppression hearing. His high-powered lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has invoked the “exclusionary rule,” under which evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution cannot be used at trial.