NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione pleaded not responsible Friday to a federal homicide cost within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as prosecutors formally declared their intent to hunt the demise penalty in opposition to him.
Mangione, 26, stood together with his legal professionals as he entered the plea, leaning ahead towards a microphone as U.S. District Decide Margaret Garnett requested him if understood the indictment and the fees in opposition to him.
Mangione mentioned, “yes.” Requested how he wished to plead, Mangione mentioned merely, “not guilty” and sat down.
Mangione’s arraignment for the killing final December attracted a number of dozen folks to the federal courthouse in Manhattan, together with former Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served about seven years in jail for stealing categorised diplomatic cables.
Mangione, who has been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest, arrived to court docket in a mustard-colored jail swimsuit. He chatted with considered one of his legal professionals, demise penalty counsel Avi Moskowitz, as they wished for the arraignment to start.
Late Thursday night time, federal prosecutors filed a required discover of their intent to hunt the demise penalty.
That got here weeks after U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi introduced that she can be directing federal prosecutors to hunt the demise penalty for what she known as “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
It was the primary time the Justice Division mentioned it was pursuing capital punishment since President Donald Trump returned to workplace Jan. 20 with a vow to renew federal executions after they have been halted underneath the earlier administration.
Mangione’s legal professionals have argued that Bondi’s announcement was a “political stunt” that corrupted the grand jury course of and disadvantaged him of his constitutional proper to due course of. That they had sought to dam prosecutors from in search of the demise penalty.
Mangione’s federal indictment features a cost of homicide by use of a firearm, which carries the potential for the demise penalty. The indictment, which mirrors a felony grievance introduced after Mangione’s arrest additionally prices him with stalking and a gun offense.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a distinguished Maryland actual property household, faces separate federal and state homicide prices after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, exterior a Manhattan resort on Dec. 4 as the chief arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor convention.
The state homicide prices carry a most punishment of life in jail.
Surveillance video confirmed a masked gunman taking pictures Thompson from behind. Police say the phrases “delay,” “deny” and “depose” have been scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase generally used to explain how insurers keep away from paying claims.
The killing and ensuing five-day search resulting in Mangione’s arrest rattled the enterprise group, with some well being insurers deleting photographs of executives from their web sites and switching to on-line shareholder conferences. On the identical time, some medical health insurance critics have rallied round Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty medical payments.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case anticipated to go to trial first, however Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo mentioned his protection crew would search to have the federal case take precedent as a result of it entails the demise penalty.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York Metropolis and whisked to Manhattan by aircraft and helicopter.
Police mentioned Mangione had a 9mm handgun that matched the one used within the taking pictures and different objects together with a pocket book wherein they are saying he expressed hostility towards the medical health insurance trade and rich executives.
Among the many entries, prosecutors mentioned, was one from August 2024 that mentioned “the target is insurance” as a result of “it checks every box” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance coverage firm CEO. UnitedHealthcare, the biggest U.S. well being insurer, has mentioned Mangione was by no means a shopper.
