Minnesota Lawmaker's Killer Accepts Plea Deal as Feds Drop Death Penalty

In a federal courtroom in Minnesota, a man accused of killing a sitting Democratic lawmaker has agreed to plead guilty, trading the possibility of execution for the certainty of a long imprisonment. The agreement, reached between Boelter's defense and federal prosecutors, spares both sides the years-long ordeal of a capital trial while delivering a conviction in a case that shook the foundations of civic life. Violence against elected officials carries a weight beyond the personal — it strikes at the shared architecture of democratic society — and this resolution, however incomplete, moves the