Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth Group chief executive Brian Thompson, appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on New York state murder and terrorism charges in New York City, U.S., Feb. 21, 2025.
Steven Hirsch | Via Reuters
Lawyer for Luigi Mangione on Friday asked a federal judge in New York to block prosecutors from seeking to impose the death penalty if he is convicted of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“The stakes could not be higher. The United States government intends to kill Mr. Mangione
as a political stunt,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote in a new filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 1 said she had ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the murder 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,” Bondi said in a statement issued by the Department of Justice at the time.
Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson on Dec. 4 as the CEO was walking into a Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan, where UnitedHealth Group, the parent of his company, was hosting an event for investors.
Mangione was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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