{"id":117654,"date":"2026-01-30T18:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117654\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:27:09","slug":"judge-bars-federal-prosecutors-from-seeking-death-penalty-against-luigi-mangione-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117654\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge bars federal prosecutors from seeking death penalty against Luigi Mangione"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Federal prosecutors can\u2019t seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a judge ruled Friday, foiling the Trump administration\u2019s bid to see him executed for what it called a \u201cpremeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge against Mangione, finding it was technically flawed. Garnett left in place stalking charges that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. The state charges also carry the possibility of life in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He is due back in court later Friday morning for a conference in the case. His lawyers didn\u2019t immediately comment on the decision but might do so during the conference or afterward.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"FILE - Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Dec. 18,...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769797629_779_RYWUHFH42JE33FRT65RVTCOGW4.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>FILE &#8211; Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Dec. 18, 2025, in New York. (Shannon Stapleton\/Pool Photo via AP, File)(Shannon Stapleton | AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jury selection in the federal case is scheduled to begin Sept. 8. The state trial hasn\u2019t been scheduled yet. On Wednesday, the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office sent a letter urging the judge in that case to set a July 1 trial date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group\u2019s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say \u201cdelay,\u201d \u201cdeny\u201d and \u201cdepose\u201d were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting-suspect-c68d0328f278d85fcf201ae89f634098\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting-suspect-c68d0328f278d85fcf201ae89f634098\">was arrested five days later<\/a>\u00a0at a McDonald\u2019s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Following through on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/federal-executions-trump-d9b15ffc1db366a717f2f605330999e8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/federal-executions-trump-d9b15ffc1db366a717f2f605330999e8\">Trump\u2019s campaign promise<\/a>\u00a0to vigorously pursue capital punishment, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors last April to seek the death penalty against Mangione.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">It was the first time the Justice Department was seeking to bring the death penalty in President Donald Trump\u2019s second term. He returned to office a year ago with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/biden-legal-proceedings-homicide-us-department-of-justice-merrick-garland-b7d8fae2f33ba2fcf1157b7c4dd5fd71\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/biden-legal-proceedings-homicide-us-department-of-justice-merrick-garland-b7d8fae2f33ba2fcf1157b7c4dd5fd71\">under his predecessor, President Joe Biden.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Garnett, a Biden appointee, ruled after a flurry of court filings in the prosecution and defense in recent months. She held oral arguments on the matter earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Federal prosecutors can\u2019t seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[44488,51822,51823,6974,75,84,83,9,24,63,31289],"class_list":["post-117654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-ceo-killing","tag-death-penalty-ruling","tag-judges-ruling","tag-luigi-mangione","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-united-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}