‘Double Jeopardy by Any Common Definition’: Angry Luigi Mangione Speaks Out in Court After State Judge Sets June Date for First of Two Trials

The judge, presiding over New York’s state case against Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League graduate accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, set a trial for June 8 after a heated argument between prosecutors and defense attorneys erupted in court. Mr. Mangione was visibly upset as he was led out of the courtroom. “Same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any common sense definition,” Mr. Mangione said loudly as court officers led him out of the courtroom at Manhattan criminal court on Friday. The Baltimore area-native, who was shackled at his hands and feet, wore beige prison garb. He has been held at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn since December 2024. Mr. Mangione, 27, is being prosecuted in three separate jurisdictions for the murder of Thompson, who was gunned down on a Midtown Manhattan street: In Pennsylvania, where he was arrested five days after the shooting; in New York, where the murder took place; and in the Southern District of New York, where the presiding federal judge set a trial date for October, with jury selection scheduled for September 8 which, as of today, will be three months after the beginning of the state trial. Both state and federal prosecutors are eager to try the high profile case, and New York state had been pushing hard to hold its trial first due to the state’s strong protections against double jeopardy.“If this case goes after the federal case, there likely will be no (state) case,” an assistant district attorney, Joel Seidemann, told Justice Gregory Carro of Manhattan’s State Supreme Court, in raised voice while the parties were huddled at the judge’s bench for over 30 minutes. New York law’s protections against double jeopardy aim to prevent a defendant from being charged with the same crime twice. As Judge Carro pointed out in his ruling on September 16, that protection is “greater” than that in the “federal constitution” but “that bar is triggered only when a prior prosecution ends in a conviction by guilty plea, or once a jury has been sworn.” Mr. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges, but once a jury is seated in his federal trial, his defense team could argue the double jeopardy clause to prevent him from facing another trial in state court. “This is a tug of war between different prosecution offices,” lead defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued in court on Friday in a desperate attempt to prevent the judge from setting a trial date for the state case, “to try this case in the middle of the federal case. But Judge Carro had little patience for the defense’s lamentations. “This case got simpler,” the judge told the parties, ”in that it got shorter, because it’s no longer a terrorism case,” the judge had dismissed the terrorism charges against Mr. Mangione on September 16, “and it’s no longer a death penalty case,” he went on, referring to a recent ruling by the federal judge, who dismissed the death penalty eligible charges from the federal indictment, as the Sun reported. “And it’s not that complex,” the judge added, “with the facts of this case.” After Judge Carro set a trial date for the state case for June 8. The defense pushed back. Ms. Agnifilo argued that she would not be ready on June 8, since she would be in the middle of preparations for the federal trial, such as composing the jury questionnaire in April and May, as there would be between “800 and one thousand” potential jurors called since this was a highly publicized case. “You don’t have to give me the whole schedule,” the judge shot back, visibly annoyed. “I don’t wanna hear any more about this.” “The defense will not be ready,” Ms. Agnifilo insisted. “Be ready,” the judge ruled. “We have been working round the clock in both cases fighting both cases,” the defense attorney went on. “And actually our motions have been successful.” She cited the defense motion that had been granted to dismiss the terrorism charges and the death penalty eligible charges, and added, “we are not sitting around.” “You have done a great job,” the judge said, “so be ready on June 8th.” Mr. Seidemann, the prosecutor, had also raised another issue, that the family of the victim, Thompson, who was a father of two living outside of Minneapolis, had asked that the state case be tried first. “The family of the victim has requested that the state case goes first,” Mr. Seideman told the judge, adding that the victim’s mother was in her late 70s. He did not cite the family’s reason for its request. As the Sun reported, Mr. Seideman had sent a letter to the judge on January 28, asking the judge for a trial date in July. He raised similar arguments in court on Friday, saying that the victim was a “guest of our city” and that the murder happened “on our streets” and that the New York state had “every reason to be the prosecuting authority.” “Counsel is aware,” the prosecutor said, referring to the defense, “that the county that issues the arrest first, goes first.” Furthermore, Mr. Seideman argued that the New York Police Department had done “all the work,” in investigating the murder, to which the defense attorney quickly replied that NYPD officers would be “front and center” and testify at the federal trial. But the judge had little patience for the defense’s pleas. “Be ready,” Judge Carro repeated, adding if federal prosecutors decide to appeal the death penalty ruling (the district judge gave them thirty days to present her with a decision time-line) and insist on charging the firearm count, the federal trial may have to be postponed, and he would move his date for the state trial to September 8.

‘Double Jeopardy by Any Common Definition’: Angry Luigi Mangione Speaks Out in Court After State Judge Sets June Date for First of Two Trials

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