By MICHAEL R. SISAK and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER | Related Press
NEW YORK — U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi mentioned Tuesday she has directed federal prosecutors to hunt the dying penalty towards Luigi Mangione, the person accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outdoors a New York Metropolis resort on Dec. 4.
Mangione, 26, faces separate federal and state homicide costs for the killing, which rattled the enterprise neighborhood whereas additionally galvanizing medical insurance critics. The federal costs embody homicide via use of a firearm, which carries the potential of the dying penalty. The state costs carry a most punishment of life in jail.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 circumstances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state costs anticipated to go to trial first. It wasn’t instantly clear if Bondi’s dying penalty announcement will change the order of how the circumstances are tried.
“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 mentioned in a 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.”
A message searching for remark was left for a spokesperson for Mangione’s legal professionals.
Mangione has pleaded not responsible to a state indictment and has not entered a plea to the federal costs.
President Donald Trump, who oversaw an unprecedented run of executions on the finish of his first time period, signed an government order on his first day again in workplace on Jan. 20 that compels the Justice Division to hunt the dying penalty in federal circumstances the place relevant.
His predecessor, Joe Biden, had issued a moratorium on federal executions.
Thompson, 50, was ambushed and shot on a sidewalk as he walked to an investor convention at a resort in midtown Manhattan.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 whereas consuming breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Police mentioned he was carrying a gun that matched the one used within the capturing and a faux ID. He additionally was carrying a pocket book expressing hostility towards the medical insurance trade and particularly rich executives, authorities mentioned.
UnitedHealthcare is the biggest well being insurer within the U.S., although the corporate mentioned Mangione was by no means a consumer.
Among the many entries within the pocket book, prosecutors mentioned, was one from August 2024 that mentioned “the target is insurance” as a result of “it checks every box” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance coverage firm CEO.
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