Federal prosecutors officially file intent to seek death penalty against Luigi Mangione
Federal prosecutors have formally filed to get the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, which would be the first such execution in the city in 70 years.
The long-teased request was formally filed late Thursday, hours before the 26-year-old suspect is due in Manhattan federal court Friday afternoon accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The feds argued that Mangione should face the death penalty because he “intentionally” killed Thompson just because of his position as a leading CEO in the health industry.
“Mangione elected to murder Thompson under these circumstances to amplify an ideological message, maximize the visibility and impact of the victim’s murder, and to provoke broad-based resistance to the victim’s industry,” prosecutors said.
“Mangione presents a future danger because he expressed intent to target an entire industry, and rally political and social position to that industry, by engaging in an act of lethal violence,” prosecutors argued.
The suspected killer also “took steps to evade law enforcement, flee New York City immediately after the murder, and cross state lines while armed with a privately manufactured firearm and silencer,” they wrote.
It comes a week after Mangione, who is also facing state murder charges in Manhattan, was indicted on federal charges for the Dec. 4 killing of the big healthcare boss in the Big Apple.
The four-count indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court charged Mangione with murder through the use of a firearm, and two counts of stalking and firearms offense.
The indictment came just days after US Attorney General Pam Bondi first announced that the feds would urge a jury to take the rare step of ordering what would be the city’s first federal execution in 70 years.
“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 said in an April 11 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,” she wrote.
Mangione’s legal team slammed the “lawless Justice Department” for wanting to “murder” the accused CEO killer for “political” reasons.
While New York state outlawed the death penalty in 2004, federal prosecutors can still execute defendants – if they convince a jury to unanimously sign off on a government-sanctioned killing.
Mangione is charged with the cold-blooded slaying of Thompson, 50, in separate cases brought by state and federal prosecutors. He faces life in prison if convicted in state court on an upgraded charge of murder as an act of terrorism.
He is accused of traveling across states to execute the health insurance executive with a 3D-printed ghost gun equipped with a homemade silencer outside a Midtown Hilton, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company was holding its annual investor conference.
Prosecutors said Mangione – a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a well-heeled Maryland family – plotted the attack for months and wrote in his notebook about plans to “wack” the head of a medical insurance company, alongside angry tirades against the US healthcare system.
The alleged assassin, who railed about the healthcare industry in his manifesto, was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following a dramatic five-day manhunt.
Since his arrest, Mangione has garnered a cult-like following of supporters who have decried what they’ve called America’s corrupt healthcare system and donated more than $918,000 to a fundraising page managed by his defense team.
He has since pleaded not guilty to a slew of state and federal charges tied to the ruthless killing.
At Mangione’s last court appearance in February, dozens of goo-goo-eyed groupies waited in the freezing temps outside a Manhattan courthouse for hours to try to get a seat at a hearing for the alleged killer.
Mangione is being held without bail at Manhattan Detention Center with the likes of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Sam Bankman Fried.
