Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth Group chief executive Brian Thompson, appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on New York state murder and terrorism charges in New York City, U.S., Feb. 21, 2025.
Lawyer for Luigi Mangione on Friday asked a federal judge in New York to block prosecutors from seeking to impose the death penalty if he is convicted of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione's attorneys said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi violated his rights to due process by abandoning normal procedures for seeking the death penalty, and that Bondi prejudiced the pool of grand jurors who will be asked by prosecutors to indict Mangione.
"The stakes could not be higher. The United States government intends to kill Mr. Mangione
as a political stunt," Mangione's attorneys wrote in a new filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Bondi on April 1 said she had ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the murder case against the 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate.
"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 said in a statement issued by the Department of Justice at the time.
In their filing Friday, Mangione's lawyers cited Bondi's statement, in which she also had said the death penalty would "carry out President Trump's agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again."
redlamps67 on April 11st, 2025 at 21:10 UTC »
“The Attorney General's television appearance was similar to her first two public statements in that she never mentioned that Mr. Mangione was not indicted nor that he has the presumption of innocence.
She emphasized, for the third time, that her decision to seek the death penalty was based on the President's directive, specifically that the administration will seek the death sentence "whenever possible." She then invoked her personal experience, saying that she was a capital prosecutor, who tried death penalty cases and that "If there was ever a death case, this is one." The Attorney General stated during her television appearance that a reason she ordered the death sentence was because the alleged victim was a CEO. Counsel is aware of no provision in the death penalty statute or in the Department of Justice's death penalty protocol that allows for consideration of the social, economic or professional status of an alleged homicide victim in determining whether to seek the death penalty.”
I encourage everyone to read the motion, it makes some strong points.
Fine-Will on April 11st, 2025 at 20:04 UTC »
Why does he need a cop breathing down his neck in every shot lmao. They just get closer and closer every time I see him it's getting a bit intimate. By the time Luigi actually receives his sentence, half the precinct is going to be on his lap.
AudibleNod on April 11st, 2025 at 19:54 UTC »
I'd publicly ask for a pardon while I was at it. Just to get it on record.