By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-01 15:51:03 | Updated at 2025-04-02 21:17:47
1 day ago
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Tuesday she had directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel on December 4.
Mangione, 26, faces separate federal and state murder charges for the killing, which rattled the business community while also galvanising health insurance critics. The federal charges include murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The state charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.
Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first. It wasn’t immediately clear if Bondi’s death penalty announcement will change the order of how the cases are tried.
“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. “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for Mangione’s lawyers.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to a state indictment and has not entered a plea to the federal charges.
President Donald Trump, who oversaw an unprecedented run of executions at the end of his first term, signed an executive order on his first day back in office on January 20 that compels the Justice Department to seek the death penalty in federal cases where applicable.
