Death penalty being sought for Luigi Mangione after CEO's killing
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Twenty-six-year-old Mangione is facing federal and state murder charges for allegedly shooting 50-year-old Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4.
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Luigi Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, appears in court for a hearing on February 21, 2025 (AP)
US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday that she has authorized prosecutors to seek the death sentence for Luigi Mangione in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, fulfilling the president's campaign vow to actively pursue capital punishment.
It is the first time the Justice Department has attempted to reinstate the capital sentence since President Donald Trump took office in January with a promise to resume federal executions. On his first day in office, he advocated for an extension of its usage "for the vilest crimes."
"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 tweeted. She described Thompson's murder as "an act of political violence."
Twenty-six-year-old Mangione is facing federal and state murder charges for allegedly shooting 50-year-old Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4 as Thompson arrived for UnitedHealthcare's annual investor conference.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione's lawyer, criticized the Justice Department on Tuesday, stating that in pursuing the death penalty, "they have moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric."
Mangione "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," Friedman Agnifilo argued, promising to fight any allegations against him.
A homicide and five-day manhunt
The homicide and the five-day manhunt that resulted in Mangione's arrest shook the business world, with several health insurers quickly transitioning to remote work or online shareholder meetings. It also energized health insurance opponents, who have rallied around Mangione as a proxy for dissatisfaction with coverage denials and high medical expenditures.
Surveillance footage showed a masked shooter shooting Thompson from behind. Police said the phrases "delay", "deny", and "depose" were scribbled on the ammo, echoing a term widely used to describe insurer methods for avoiding paying claims.
Mangione was arrested on December 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and brought to Manhattan, where police found a 9mm handgun matching the one used in the shooting, along with a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry, including a reference to targeting an insurance company CEO. His lawyer plans to seek the suppression of some evidence.
Former President Joe Biden's Justice Department filed the federal case against Mangione, leaving it up to Trump and his administration to decide whether to pursue the death sentence. Because the federal case has taken a back place to the state investigation, federal prosecutors have failed to seek a grand jury indictment, which is needed in capital trials.
Bondi's move comes only weeks after she overturned the Biden-era halt on federal executions.
Since the Supreme Court reintroduced the capital penalty in 1976, the great majority of US executions have been carried out via lethal injection, with the exception of a man executed by firing squad in South Carolina on March 7.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others—Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee—have imposed moratoriums on executions.
