US to Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione Over CEO's Murder
Federal prosecutors will pursue capital punishment for Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday that federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of carrying out what she described as the “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination” of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Thompson, 50, was shot and killed outside a hotel in New York City on December 4. Authorities arrested Mangione, 26, in Pennsylvania days later, following a nationwide manhunt.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York and has not yet entered a plea for related federal charges. He is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, awaiting trial.
In her statement, Bondi referred to the killing as an act of “political violence” and said it may have endangered others in the vicinity. Federal investigators say Mangione was driven by deep resentment toward US health insurance companies.
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, condemned the decision to pursue the death penalty, calling it “barbaric.” She accused the government of defending “a broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry,” and claimed her client is caught in a legal struggle between state and federal authorities.
“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the premeditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi,” Agnifilo said in a statement.
Mangione is facing 11 state charges, including first-degree murder and murder as an act of terrorism. If convicted on all counts, he faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Separately, federal prosecutors have charged him with using a firearm to commit murder and with interstate stalking resulting in death — both charges that qualify him for the death penalty.
Officials say the state and federal prosecutions will proceed simultaneously. New York prosecutors have already presented evidence linking Mangione to the crime scene, including fingerprints.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Mangione arrived in New York on November 24 and stayed at a hostel in Manhattan under a fake identity for 10 days before ambushing Thompson. The CEO was shot in the back by a masked gunman as he entered a hotel where UnitedHealthcare was holding an investors’ meeting.
Five days later, authorities apprehended Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. At the time of his arrest, he was allegedly carrying a ghost gun — an untraceable firearm assembled from separate parts — as well as a fake ID, a passport, and a handwritten note indicating his “motivation and mindset.”
Thompson’s murder sparked a heated national debate over the US healthcare system. Many Americans voiced frustration over the rising costs and limited access, blaming major insurance companies for prioritizing profit over care.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas noted that the online discourse following the incident was “extraordinarily alarming,” saying it highlighted the rise of domestic violent extremism. “It speaks of what is really bubbling here in this country,” he said in a December interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
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