Luigi Mangione appeared Tuesday in a New York courtroom where plans were nearly finalized for his state murder trial, which the judge ruled will have an anonymous jury because of security concerns.
Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to several state charges in the December 2024 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside the New York Hilton Midtown. If convicted, Mangione faces up to life in prison.
On Tuesday, Justice Gregory Carro ordered the parties to team up on crafting a jury questionnaire — a task that could prove challenging given the case’s notoriety. Jury selection is set to begin Sept. 8, and the trial is expected to last about six weeks.
The parties are expected to coordinate on a survey that will address each side’s concerns and identify potential jurors who may be biased. It was unclear when the questionnaire would be finalized; Mangione’s defense team said it expects to have a proposed draft this week.
Jurors who make it past the initial screening will face additional vetting in a process known as voir dire.
Carro’s anonymity order is designed to protect jurors from possible harassment and intimidation efforts. The panelists’ names and addresses will remain sealed except to the attorneys, who have been ordered to keep that information private.
“These circumstances create a realistic and substantial risk that prospective and sworn jurors could be subject to harassment, intimidation, or improper outside influence, and that disclosure of their identifying information would meaningfully increase that risk,” Carro noted in a written order released Tuesday.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office argued in a July 22 court filing that the activities of Mangione admirers, or self-described “Mangionistas,” are attempts to influence the outcome of the case.
Some have been recorded making cruel statements outside the courthouse about Thompson and his family, calling the victim “a terrorist” among other insensitive remarks, the filing said.
Supporters have also commissioned mobile billboards to circle the courthouse in a jury nullification awareness campaign. Nullification is an extremely rare outcome in criminal cases because jurors are not told to consider it during deliberations.
A jury can decide on its own to adopt a nullification finding based on fairness conclusions about a case or other factors, even if the panel believes the defendant committed a crime.
Mangione’s notoriety “has led to threats against some of the people involved in the case,” the DA’s filing said, adding that there have been “threats, harassment, and exposure of personal information of individuals, businesses, and organizations perceived as assisting in the investigation into and apprehension of the defendant.”
The courtroom was filled Tuesday with journalists and some Mangione proponents, who were wearing green, an apparent reference to the Luigi character from the iconic Nintendo Super Mario games and subsequent movies.
Mangione entered the room from a holding area wearing a gray suit and glanced around before taking his seat next to his attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan.
The judge said there would be expanded media and public access to the trial. After fielding complaints from Mangione’s defense team about potential space limitations, court administrators arranged for an overflow room.
“It has always been under consideration. They had to find the physical place, and it had to be staffed,” Carro said.
The defense had accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of unfairly trying to limit the number of attendees, which it argued would shape the type of coverage the trial receives.
Prosecutors objected to those characterizations but also raised concerns about witness exposure.
“We are particularly concerned about the possibility that a spectator in an overflow room will clandestinely record the proceedings and share any such recordings with others,” prosecutor Joel Seidemann wrote in an Aug. 10 letter.
Seidemann also argued that Mangione supporters have tried to intimidate witnesses and interrupt the jury process, elevating the prosecution’s fears about the “extraordinary pressure on witnesses and potential jurors alike.”
The judge said the DA had no role in courtroom access planning and called the defense’s claims of meddling “a reckless mischaracterization.”
Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said outside the courthouse that he was glad the court arranged for extra space.
“I think it actually changed the complexion of the coverage of the trial. ... I think there should be two overflow rooms, but I’ll take one,” Agnifilo said.
Mangione’s case has garnered international headlines, with mostly female supporters who have appeared in court throughout the pretrial hearings and argue that the CEO’s killing was justified.
Prosecutors allege Mangione was motivated by an animus toward the health insurance industry, but he was never a UnitedHealthcare customer. He had no connection to Thompson, a father of two from Minnesota.
Prosecutors say Mangione trailed Thompson and identified his movements in New York, where the CEO was attending his company’s investors conference.
Prosecutors allege that Mangione shot Thompson from behind outside the hotel, then fled the city. He was apprehended days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a McDonald’s employee called the police.
Former Manhattan prosecutor Rebecca Roiphe told NBC News that during jury selection, prosecutors will likely want to scrutinize potential jurors’ experiences in the healthcare system to weed out those who might sympathize with Mangione.
“I think the prosecution is clearly going to want to keep off people who have some kind of ax to grind about healthcare,” Roiphe said.
Roiphe, who is a criminal law and ethics professor at New York Law School, believes the defense will seek panelists with a “healthcare-for-all mindset.”
Mangione separately faces federal stalking-related charges in New York and has pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department was seeking the death penalty in the federal case, but that option was taken off the table earlier this year.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett issued a ruling in January that effectively blocks New York federal prosecutors from pursuing a capital case. Mangione has an appearance scheduled Friday in federal court in Manhattan; it is unclear what will be discussed.
