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Attorneys for Luigi Mangione have filed a motion urging a New York judge to allow the suspect in the 2024 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to appear in court without handcuffs or a bulletproof vest, arguing that the visible restraints are unnecessary.
The Tuesday motion comes ahead of Mangione’s scheduled court appearance on June 26.
The request, submitted to Justice Gregory Carro of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, calls for Mangione to be allowed to sit at the defense table with unshackled hands and in standard courtroom attire.
His legal team argues that the security measures, particularly the use of shackles and a bulletproof vest, serve no legitimate safety function and instead reinforce a damaging public narrative that depicts Mangione as dangerous. They argue that the visual impact of such restraints, frequently captured by the media, undermines his presumption of innocence.
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Pointing to one photograph of Mangione’s shackled ankles while seated in court that garnered more than 36 million views on X, his defense argued that it is impeding the accused killer of his right to a fair trial.
The motion also says that Mangione has not caused any trouble since his arrest in December 2024. He didn’t resist arrest, cooperated with law enforcement, and hasn’t been a problem in jail. He’s being held in a regular part of the federal jail in Brooklyn, meets with his lawyers almost daily without shackles, and has been assigned work inside the prison.
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The defense said that in federal court, where Mangione faces the possibility of the death penalty, he was only made to wear leg shackles and did not wear a bulletproof vest or handcuffs.
They also say that making Mangione wear a bulletproof vest doesn’t make sense because everyone is required to go through a metal detector.
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Mangione, a Maryland man, is the suspect in the assassination of Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024 in New York City.
Thompson was shot from behind outside a New York City Hilton hotel just hours before a shareholder conference. At the crime scene, police discovered bullet casings with handwritten words: “depose,” “deny,” and “defend,” which drew comparisons to the book “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.”
The now 27-year-old was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, while eating breakfast after a McDonald’s customer and employee recognized him from a wanted poster.
A federal grand jury indicted Mangione on four counts: murder through the use of a firearm, a firearms offense and two counts of stalking. If he is found guilty, he could be eligible for the death penalty.
In addition to the federal indictment, Mangione has been charged in Pennsylvania and New York.
In Pennsylvania, where he was arrested, Mangione has been charged with carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, providing false identification to law enforcement, and possession of instruments of crime. These charges remain pending.
In New York State, Mangione faces 11 charges, the most serious being first-degree murder as an act of terrorism. Prosecutors allege the murder was committed to intimidate or coerce a group and to influence government policy. Other charges include multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon related to a ghost gun and silencer, as well as criminal possession of a forged instrument for using a fake New Jersey driver’s license to check into a hostel near the crime scene.
His next state court appearance is set for June 26, while his federal court hearing is scheduled for Dec. 5.
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