Luigi Mangione, the suspect within the killing of UnitedHealth Group chief govt Brian Thompson, seems in Manhattan Supreme Court docket on New York state homicide and terrorism costs in New York Metropolis, U.S., Feb. 21, 2025.
Curtis Means | By way of Reuters
Luigi Mangione pleaded not responsible Friday in New York federal courtroom to the homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione faces a potential dying sentence within the case if he’s convicted within the federal case of murdering Thompson, who was gunned down on a Manhattan avenue in December.
The 26-year-old College of Pennsylvania graduate is individually charged in New York state courtroom with the slaying.
Mangione is accused of fatally taking pictures Thompson on Dec. 4 because the CEO was strolling into the Hilton Lodge in midtown. UnitedHealth Group, the father or mother of Thompson’s medical health insurance big, was internet hosting an occasion for buyers on the resort that day.
Mangione was arrested 5 days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
He’s charged U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan with homicide by means of use of a firearm, two counts of stalking, and a firearms offence.
Mangione appeared there Friday earlier than Choose Margaret Garnett to enter his plea.
The listening to occurred a day after the Justice Division formally notified Garnett that it could search the dying penalty within the case, arguing that Thompson’s killing was ideologically motivated by Mangione’s anger towards the medical health insurance trade.
In a courtroom submitting Thursday, prosecutors advised Garnett there have been a number of components to warrant imposing a dying sentence within the case, together with the allegation that Mangione “deliberately killed” Thompson, and “that the killing required “substantial planning and premeditation.”
“Mangione elected to homicide Thompson underneath these circumstances to amplify an ideological
message, maximize the visibility and impression of the sufferer’s homicide, and to impress broad-based resistance to the sufferer’s trade,” the submitting stated.
“Mangione presents a future hazard as a result of he expressed intent to focus on a whole trade, and rally political and social opposition to that trade, by partaking in an act of deadly violence; and he took steps to evade regulation enforcement, flee New York Metropolis instantly after the homicide, and cross state traces whereas armed with a privately manufactured firearm and silencer.”
U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi on April 1 first revealed that the Justice Division needed to have Mangione executed if he’s convicted.
“Luigi Mangione’s homicide of Brian Thompson — an harmless man and father of two younger kids — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi stated in a assertion that day.
Mangione’s legal professionals in an April 11 courtroom submitting requested Choose Garnett to dam prosecutors from in search of the dying penalty, arguing that Bondi had violated the defendant’s rights to due course of and that the lawyer normal had prejudiced the pool of potential jurors along with her public assertion.
On Friday, Garnett warned legal professionals within the case to chorus from “public commentary that might impede Mangione’s proper to a good trial.
“I am particularly directing the federal government to convey my directive to Mr. Clayton and request that he convey the identical to Lawyer Basic Bondi and her associates at foremost Justice,” Garnett stated. Jay Clayton is the interim Manhattan U.S. Lawyer, and “foremost Justice” is a reference to the Justice Division and its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
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