Federal Prosecutors Agree Not To Seek the Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione: Justice Department Won’t Appeal Judge’s Ruling

Federal prosecutors in New York said on Friday they will not appeal a judge’s decision removing the death penalty from the case against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, on a Manhattan street. That clears the way for the federal trial to begin on October 13 with jury selection set for September 8. But Mr. Mangione also faces another trial for the same murder at New York state court set to begin four months earlier, on June 8, which could be a challenge for the defense attorneys. As the Sun reported, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett threw out the death-eligible counts in Mr. Mangione’s indictment in late January and gave federal prosecutors until Friday to decide whether to appeal. In a letter, they told the court that “the Department of Justice will not seek interlocutory review” of her order “dismissing Counts Three and Four of the Indictment.” On April 1 last year, Attorney General Pam Bondi, released a statement, calling Thompson’s murder “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America” and directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case. Three weeks later, on April 24, federal prosecutors entered an official “notice of intent to seek the death penalty.” Luigi Mangione is escorted into Manhattan state court at New York on September 16, 2025. Seth Wenig/APDefense attorneys fought back, arguing that the push for capital punishment was politically motivated and sidestepped federal protocols. But more importantly, they raised a legal technicality as grounds to dismiss the death penalty eligible charges, eventually writing in a motion filed last fall that the two predicate acts in the indictment do not qualify as “crimes of violence” and therefore cannot be used to make Thompson’s killing a capital offense.The four count indictment had charged Mr. Mangione, with two counts of stalking and two firearm counts. Count one alleges that Mr. Mangione “traveled from Georgia to New York… for the purpose of stalking and killing Brian Thompson,” a Minnesota-based father of two, who had come to New York to attend an annual investor conference, when he was fatally shot from behind on a sidewalk in front of the Hilton Hotel in December 2024. Count two accuses Mr. Mangione of using a cellphone and the internet to carry out the alleged murder. The death-penality eligible count three charged Mr. Mangione of having caused “the death of a person through the use of a firearm,” and count four added that the firearm was “equipped” with a “silencer and firearm muffler.” In order to charge these firearm offenses, the predicate acts must be “crimes of violence,” which, according to the defense, the stalking statutes are not, because stalking is not an inherently violent crime. A person can stalk a victim without using any physical force, for example, to accomplish harassment or intimidation but not physical violence. Luigi Mangione listens to his attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo at a hearing for the murder of UHC CEO Brian Thompson at Manhattan Criminal Court on February 21, 2025 in New York City. Curtis Means – Pool/Getty ImagesThe judge reluctantly agreed, writing in her January 30 decision, “No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct.” She lamented that “over the course of the last two decades” the Supreme Court had “embarked upon a legal journey” that directed the lower courts to focus not on “the conduct at issue” but on the “hypothetically least serious conduct” of the alleged crime. The trial will now be held on the two stalking counts, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Mr. Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. This may be good news for the defense team, but there is another trial looming at Manhattan criminal court, where Mr. Mangione faces a nine count indictment, which includes a second-degree murder charge, from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. The judge handling that case set the trial date for June 8. Mr. Mangione is being prosecuted in three separate jurisdictions for the murder of Thompson: 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 trial is set to begin on October 13. Luigi Mangione as he’s being arrested at the McDonald’s. Altoona Police Dept.Due to the high profile nature of the case, New York and federal prosecutors are eager to try Mr. Mangione, and so far, the judges have obliged them. A few days after her decision, Judge Garnett published a pretrial schedule, detailing, among other issues, the process for jury selection, in the trial. According to her schedule, the proposed questionnaires are due in May, so that by the end of June, the “Jury Department can administer (a) written questionnaire to prospective jurors in a venire of approximately 800.” It appears that the judge wants the parties to preselect prospective jurors before the voir dire, the in-person questioning that begins on September 8 in court. But these dates coincide with the trial at state court, which is set to begin on June 8. An assistant district attorney, Joel Seidemann, told Justice Gregory Carro of Manhattan’s State Supreme Court during a hearing on February 6, that if the state trial was postponed to go after the federal case, there would likely be no state case. A person dressed as a frog holds up a pro-Luigi Mangione banner ahead of his court hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 01, 2025. Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesNew York has stronger laws to protect against double jeopardy, aiming to prevent a defendant from being charged with the same crime twice, that the federal government. As Judge Carro pointed out in a ruling from 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.” In other words, once the jury is seated at the Southern District, the defense can file a motion to dismiss the state case based on double jeopardy. Lead defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued that this was a “a tug of war between different prosecution offices,” and Mr. Mangione, the defendant, even addressed the court as he was being led out of the courtroom, saying “Same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”However, New York is adamant about trying the case. In a letter to the judge Mr. Seideman wrote that the murder took place “on our streets,” and that Thompson was a “guest of our city,” and the New York Police Department had done “all the work,” in investigating the murder. The next hearing at Manhattan criminal court is scheduled for May 18, where the judge is expected to rule whether or not to dismiss any of the evidence that was obtained during Mr. Mangione’s arrest. Judge Garnett denied the defense’s request to dismiss any evidence, after the attorneys argued in her courtroom that it was seized unlawfully. Judge Carro has not issued his ruling yet.

Federal Prosecutors Agree Not To Seek the Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione: Justice Department Won’t Appeal Judge’s Ruling

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