Attorneys for the man accused of killing a health insurance CEO are trying to get the death penalty off the table, calling a directive to seek capital punishment “a political stunt.”
Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with murder in the December assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, filed a motion seeking to block the death penalty Friday.
“The stakes could not be higher. The United States government intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote in the motion filed in Manhattan.
They cited Attorney General Pamela Bondi’s comments when she directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty. When she announced her instructions, she said prosecutors would work to “carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Mangione is accused of killing Thompson, CEO of the country’s largest private health insurer, in an ambush shooting on a Midtown Manhattan street early Dec. 4.
The words “deny,” “depose” and “delay” were written on two spent shell casings and one bullet found at the scene, authorities said, and prosecutors allege he targeted Thompson and planned the attack.
Mangione is charged with four federal counts, and he is also charged on New York state counts that include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism.
Attorneys for Mangione also argue in the motion that procedures have not been followed.
The motion says that Mangione's attorneys "asked for three months to prepare a fulsome mitigation submission to the Department of Justice’s Capital Committee and was ignored."
It also cites an Instagram post by Bondi and argues that she has said that Mangione is guilty and prejudiced the grand jury process.
The motion seeks to require that jurors be screened from what it calls Bondi's prejudicial public statements.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment Friday night. The Department of Justice did not respond to an email seeking comment sent after business hours.
Mangione is charged federally with one count each of using a firearm to commit murder; interstate stalking resulting in death; stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death; and discharging a firearm that was equipped with a silencer in furtherance of a crime of violence.
The count of using a firearm to commit murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison or death. The other three counts carry up to life in prison.
Mangione is charged in New York on state counts of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, but he is also charged on two counts of second-degree murder. Mangione is also charged with weapons counts and a count of using a forged instrument.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case. The state case is set to go first.
He has not yet entered a plea in the federal case. He was charged federally by a criminal complaint but has not been indicted.
