A Manhattan judge ruled on Friday that federal prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against suspected assassin Luigi Mangione, a major twist ahead of the highly anticipated trial.
Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to pursue the death penalty last year after Mangione was arrested and hit with federal charges for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, however, said the parts of the case that made the death penalty a possibility had “legal infirmities,” The New York Post reported.
The federal charge against Mangione that made him eligible for the death penalty accused him of “using a firearm to commit murder in furtherance of a crime of violence.” Garnett said that she was dismissing that part of the indictment “solely to preclude the death penalty as an available punishment when the jury determines if the Defendant caused Brian Thompson’s death.”
Garnett agreed with Mangione’s defense team and said that stalking does not constitute “a crime of violence.” The judge acknowledged that her decision was “strange,” but argued that violence is defined by using force, and stalking could technically be committed without using force, ABC News reported.
Thompson was gunned down from behind in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024, as he was walking to a hotel during his company’s annual investor conference. Thompson, a Minnesota resident, left behind a wife and two small children. Shell casings retrieved from the scene had the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” written on them, according to the New York Police Department. The words found on the shell casings have been connected to a 2010 book that was critical of the health insurance industry. Mangione’s fingerprints allegedly matched fingerprints found on shell casings at the murder scene.
Garnett’s ruling means that Mangione now faces a maximum of life in prison without parole. Prosecutors plan on appealing the decision, NBC 4 New York reported.
In another decision on Friday, Garnett sided against Mangione’s defense team and said that the prosecution could use evidence that was seized from Mangione’s backpack when he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania. While the suspected assassin’s backpack was searched by police without a warrant, Garnett said there are exceptions to the requirement for obtaining a warrant, such as the discovery of a weapon.
Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona following a five-day manhunt, and police found a firearm, silencer, and what appeared to be a manifesto in the man’s backpack. In one section of a notebook found in Mangione’s possession, the author planned to “whack” the health care CEO “at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention.”
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to the federal and state murder charges. With the death penalty thrown out, opening arguments for the trial are set to begin in October, with jury selection scheduled for September 8.
The case has already gripped the nation, and Mangione has gained a following, with some of his supporters defending the murder of Thompson and calling for more health care executives to be killed.
Attorney General Bondi said last year that the murder of Thompson was “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
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