NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi mentioned Tuesday she has directed federal prosecutors to hunt the dying penalty towards Luigi Mangione, the person accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outdoors a New York Metropolis lodge on Dec. 4.
Mangione, 26, faces separate federal and state homicide expenses for the killing, which rattled the enterprise neighborhood whereas additionally galvanizing medical insurance critics. The federal expenses embody homicide via use of a firearm, which carries the potential for the dying penalty. The state expenses carry a most punishment of life in jail.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 circumstances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state expenses anticipated to go to trial first. It wasn’t instantly clear if Bondi’s dying penalty announcement will change the order of how the circumstances 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 mentioned in a press release. “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 looking for remark was left for a spokesperson for Mangione’s attorneys.
Mangione has pleaded not responsible to a state indictment and has not entered a plea to the federal expenses.
President Donald Trump, who oversaw an unprecedented run of executions on the finish of his first time period, signed an govt order on his first day again in workplace on Jan. 20 that compels the Justice Division to hunt the dying penalty in federal circumstances the place relevant.
His predecessor, Joe Biden, had issued a moratorium on federal executions.
Thompson, 50, was ambushed and shot on a sidewalk as he walked to an investor convention at a lodge in midtown Manhattan.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 whereas consuming breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Police mentioned he was carrying a gun that matched the one used within the taking pictures and a faux ID. He additionally was carrying a pocket book expressing hostility towards the medical insurance business and particularly rich executives, authorities mentioned.
UnitedHealthcare is the most important well being insurer within the U.S., although the corporate mentioned Mangione was by no means a shopper.
Among the many entries within the pocket book, 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.
