Luigi Mangione Returns to Court As His Attorneys Challenge Charges Tied to Death Penalty By Janelle Griffith

Luigi Mangione appeared in federal court on Friday, Jan. 9, as his attorneys asked a judge to throw out two of the four charges against him, including one for which the government is seeking the death penalty.

Mangione, 27, is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., more than 200 miles from Manhattan, five days later, ending a frantic multi-state manhunt.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. Federal prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty, which Mangione’s attorneys are trying to stop.

Federal prosecutors have charged Mangione with one count of using a firearm to commit a murder, one count of interstate stalking resulting in death, one count of stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death and one count of discharging a firearm that was equipped with a silencer in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Prosecutors are using the stalking charges to make the murder count death penalty-eligible.

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On Friday, defense attorney Paresh Patel told U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett that the most serious charges against Mangione should be thrown out because federal prosecutors are relying on flawed legal arguments. Patel said the stalking in this case wasn’t inherently violent.

Prosecutors countered that the charges were legally sound, and that the stalking did have a violent intent — Thompson’s murder. 

Garnett said she would rule at a later date whether to allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty. She scheduled another pretrial conference for Jan. 30. A defense request for an evidentiary hearing, like those in state court, was denied — though the judge left open the possiblity she could change her mind.

Police recovered several items at the time of his arrest, including a backpack containing a loaded gun, a silencer and what they have described as a manifesto decrying America’s health care industry. His attorneys contend that the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant.

Garnett also said jury selection could begin in Mangione’s trial as early as September if capital punishment is off the table. But if the judge allows the death penalty, Mangione’s federal trial would likely begin next year.

His attorneys were successful in their efforts to convince a judge that two terrorism-related murder charges against him should be dropped in his state case. 

Mangione wore prison garb to the hearing — his first time back in federal court since his arraignment last year — and his hands were not in handcuffs during the proceedings.