U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year in New York City.
Mangione faces state murder and terrorism charges in New York, along with federal murder and stalking charges. The state charges are not eligible for the death penalty.
“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 said in a statement Tuesday.
President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office compelling the DOJ to seek the death penalty where applicable.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to 11 state charges, but has not yet been arraigned on the federal charges. He is due back in federal court later this month.
Count three of Mangione’s four federal counts – murder through use of a firearm – carries the possibility of the death penalty. Back in early February, Mangione’s legal team brought on an attorney with considerable expertise in death penalty cases.
Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have no comment.
Mangione’s attorney calls Justice Department move “barbaric”
Mangione’s attorneys slammed the Justice Department.
“By seeking to murder Luigi Mangione, the Justice Department has moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric. Their decision to execute Luigi is political and goes against the recommendation of the local federal prosecutors, the law, and historical precedent. While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi. By doing this, they are defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people,” Mangione’s attorney Karen Agnifilo said in a statement. “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. This is a corrupt web of government dysfunction and one-upmanship. Luigi is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man’s life.”
Eric Freedman, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University, is critical of Bondi’s decision.
“There has never been a New York federal death sentence that stood up,” he said.
Freedman explains that since 1988, there’s been a central group of prosecutors in the Justice Department who make sure the decision to pursue the death penalty isn’t a one-off, that it’s consistent, he says.
That way, if it were challenged, Freedman says, “it would make sure that they could justify federal statute as being administered on the coherent rational basis having criteria.”
Luigi Mangione charged in UnitedHealthcare CEO murder
Prosecutors say Mangione ambushed Thompson on Dec. 4 outside the Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan as Thompson walked to a UnitedHealthcare investors conference. The deadly shooting prompted a five-day manhunt, leading investigators from a hostel on the Upper West Side to a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania where Mangione was taken into custody.
Investigators said he was carrying a backpack that contained a gun matching the description of the murder weapon and a notebook with writings critical of the insurance industry.
Mangione was extradited back to New York City, where he remains in federal custody at Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn.
Last week, his defense team requested a laptop so he can review documents in the case. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office pushed back, saying Mangione has access to computers at MDC and that he’s already received special treatment, like being able to change into different clothes for his court appearances.
The DA’s office accused his attorneys of delivering heart-shaped notes apparently from an unknown supporter inside a pair of socks before his last hearing.
contributed to this report.