Judge bars prosecutors from seeking death penalty against Luigi Mangione

Federal prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, a judge ruled on Friday.

It foils the Trump administration’s bid to see him executed for what it called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”.

US District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding that it was technically flawed.

She wrote that she did so to “foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” as it weighs whether to convict Mangione.

Judge Garnett also dismissed a gun charge but left in place stalking charges that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.

In order to seek the death penalty, prosecutors needed to show that Mangione killed Mr Thompson while committing another “crime of violence”. Stalking does not fit that definition, the judge wrote in her opinion, citing case law and legal precedents.

In a win for prosecutors, Judge Garnett ruled that prosecutors can use evidence collected from his backpack during his arrest, including a 9mm handgun and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to “whack” an insurance executive.

Mangione’s lawyers had sought to exclude those items, arguing the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant.

The rulings could be subject to appeals. A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is prosecuting the federal case.

Judge Garnett acknowledged that the decision “may strike the average person – and indeed many lawyers and judges – as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law”.

But, she said, it reflected her “committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case. The law must the Court’s only concern”.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. The state charges also carry the possibility of life in prison.

He arrived in court for a conference in the case shortly after the written ruling was issued. Mangione’s lawyers did not address the decision during the hearing but his lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said afterwards that her client and his defence team were relieved by the “incredible decision”.

Jury selection in the federal case is scheduled to begin on September 8, followed by opening statements and testimony beginning on October 13. The state trial’s date has not yet been set.

On Wednesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office sent a letter urging the judge in that case to schedule a July 1 trial date.

Mr Thompson, 50, was killed on December 4 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay”, “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles west of Manhattan.

Following through on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors last April to seek the death penalty against Mangione.

It was the first time the Justice Department was seeking to bring the death penalty in Mr Trump’s second term. He returned to office a year ago with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Judge Garnett, a Biden appointee, ruled after a flurry of court filings in the prosecution and defence in recent months. She held oral arguments on the matter earlier this month.

In addition to seeking to have the death penalty thrown out on the grounds Garnett cited, Mangione’s lawyers argued that Ms Bondi’s announcement flouted long-established Justice Department protocols and showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit”.

They said her remarks, which were followed by posts to her Instagram account and a TV appearance, “indelibly prejudiced” the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later.

Prosecutors urged Judge Garnett to keep the death penalty on the table, arguing that the charges allowing for such punishment were legally sound and that Ms Bondi’s remarks were not prejudicial, as “pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect”.

Rather than dismissing the case outright or barring the government from seeking the death penalty, prosecutors argued, the defence’s concerns can best be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case and ensuring Mangione’s rights are respected at trial.

“What the defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a repackaging of arguments” rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said.

“None warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical preclusion of a congressionally authorised punishment.”