because they lacked a warrant when they searched his backpack after Mangione was apprehended in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s
The cops figuratively shoot themselves in the foot, because they're so used to plea deals they forgot how a lawful investigation is supposed to work.
They claimed there was danger and that's why they apprehended him and separated him from his bag without Miranda. But forgot that once that happened, they were no longer legally allowed to search the bag without a warrant because there was no imment threat.
Then even after searching the bag, they found nothing.
Until after the bag was at the station and searched again.
The single cop who drove the bag to the station was photographed leaving with no gloves on, testified there was no reason she'd have put gloves on while driving, but was photographed with gloves on while turning the bag in.
It's going to be insane if anything from the bag is admitted, and since it's "public knowledge" what was in the bag it's influenced every potential juror and may be grounds for a mistrial already.
I feel like they're dragging it out because they know it's gonna be bad, but that's not going to help anything, people aren't just going to stop caring about this.