Federal prosecutors formally announced plans to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione is accused of gunning down Thompson last December outside of a Midtown Manhattan hotel before he allegedly escaped the crime scene by foot, bike, cab and bus to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested nearly a week later, marking the end of a six-day manhunt that gripped the nation.
The Ivy League graduate has been federally charged with murder through use of a firearm, two counts of stalking and a firearms offense.
On Thursday, a day before Mangione is due to be arraigned in a Manhattan federal court, government attorneys filed a formal notice that they are planning to seek a death sentence for the murder through use of a firearm charge.
Mangione “presents a future danger because he expressed intent to target an entire industry, and rally political and social opposition to that industry, by engaging in an act of lethal violence,” the government wrote in the Thursday filing.
He also faces 11 criminal counts in New York, including murder as an act of terrorism, in connection with the December 4 killing; he has pleaded not guilty. In Pennsylvania, he faces forgery and firearms charges. He has not yet made a plea in the state and his attorneys have sought to dismiss the criminal charges he faces in the state.
The formal notice of intent comes weeks after Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced on April 1, before he was indicted federally, that she directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case.
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America. After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,” Bondi wrote.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a lawyer for Mangione, issued a statement after Bondi’s announcement: “We are prepared to fight these federal charges, brought by a lawless Justice Department, as well as the New York State charges, and the Pennsylvania charges, and anything else they want to pile on Luigi.”
Weeks later, Mangione’s lawyers formally objected to the government’s push for the death penalty. On April 11, his lawyers sought court intervention, accusing the government of having “abandoned” statutory and internal procedures and called the decision to seek the death penalty a “political stunt.”
“The Attorney General again failed to mention that Mr. Mangione has not been indicted nor that he is presumed to be innocent,” the attorneys argued in an April 11 filing. Mangione was indicted on federal charges on April 17.
The Trump administration’s push for the death penalty marks the end of President Biden’s moratorium on federal executions.
