Luigi Mangione No Longer Facing Death Penalty as Some Federal Charges Are Tossed By Ben Brachfeld 151

Luigi Mangione will no longer face the death penalty, a federal judge ruled on Friday, Jan. 30.

In an opinion delivered Friday, Judge Margaret Garnett of the Southern District of New York ordered two of the charges against Mangione dismissed, namely murder and use of a firearm. He still faces two stalking charges.

The 27-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and could still face life without parole for the stalking charges.

Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk outside a hotel hosting an investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024.

He was captured five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., allegedly carrying a 9 mm handgun and a “manifesto” describing a desire to “wack” a health insurance CEO.

The Trump administration was zealously seeking capital punishment for Mangione; Attorney General Pam Bondi called Thompson’s killing a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

Because the death penalty is no longer on the table, Garnett wants Mangione’s federal trial to begin in October, she said this month.

He is also charged by New York State with second-degree murder in relation to Thompson’s killing. Manhattan prosecutors want his state trial to begin in July, ahead of the federal trial.

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Mangione is being held pretrial at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, alongside deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

On Thursday, a Minnesota man was charged with impersonating an F.B.I. agent in an alleged attempt to break Mangione out of jail with a pizza cutter and barbecue fork.