Attorneys for Luigi Mangione asked a judge to stop federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against their client, saying the U.S. government “intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt.”
The motion filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the death penalty to “carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Mangione, 26, who faces state murder and terrorism charges in New York, along with federal murder and stalking charges, is accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year in New York City.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to 11 state charges and is not eligible for the death penalty in New York State. He has not yet been arraigned on the federal charges.
Karen Agnifilo and Avi Moskowitz, Mangione’s attorneys, wrote in the motion that their client seeks relief because the attorney general prejudiced the grand jury pool and has corrupted the grand jury process by publicly issuing the death penalty direction to prosecutors via a press release.
“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. 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,” Bondi said in a statement earlier in April.
His attorneys also argued that Bondi’s Instagram post following the press release in which she stated that Mangione was guilty of murder further prejudiced the grand jury process in the Southern District. They also referenced a television appearance where the Attorney General reiterated that Mangione hunted down and executed Thompson. His attorneys wrote that Bondi’s “pattern of public statements show with remarkable clarity and consistency that she has ordered this capital prosecution unabashedly for political reasons.”
Mangione remains in federal custody at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Alice Gainer
contributed to this report.
