Judge Rules Out Death Penalty for Mangione in CEO’s Murder

Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty in the 2024 ambush shooting murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge ruled on Friday.

In a written order issued an hour before a scheduled hearing in her Manhattan courtroom, US District Judge Margaret M. Garnett dismissed the two death penalty-eligible counts against Mangione.

Instead, Mangione will now face two fatal stalking counts at a trial that could begin in October: crossing state lines to cause Thompson’s death, and using the internet to plan and carry out the CEO’s death.

Both charges carry a maximum possible punishment of life in prison without parole.

In her order, Garnett used the word “absurdity” to describe the “legal infirmities” of the two charges she dismissed.

Both charges had required proof of stalking as being, in itself, a crime of violence, a requirement she said prosecutors failed to demonstrate.

During the months he allegedly planned the murder in pursuit of Thompson’s death, Mangione failed to face the CEO “in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily harm” or in “emotional distress,” as required by the statute, she wrote.

Thompson was unaware of Mangione’s actions prior to being shot from behind on a Manhattan sidewalk on December 4, 2024, according to prosecutors’ own account of the killing.

“The stalking offenses charged in counts one and two are not ‘crimes of violence’ as a matter of law, and counts three and four must be dismissed,” she wrote.

The ruling flies in the face of US Attorney Pam Bondi’s strongly worded announcement, in April, that prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

“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 wrote then.

“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.”

In a separate ruling Friday morning, the judge allowed prosecutors to show the trial jury the most serious evidence against Mangione, the contents of his backpack, which, upon his death, contained a gun and journal linked to the killing.