NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Federal prosecutors said Friday they won\u2019t appeal a judge\u2019s ruling that bars them from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.<\/p>\n
In a letter, Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley told Judge Margaret Garnett that the government will not ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse her decision, clearing the way for a trial beginning in September. His state murder trial is set to start in June.<\/p>\n
Garnett last month dismissed a federal murder charge \u2014 murder through use of a firearm \u2014 that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding it legally flawed. <\/p>\n
She wrote that she did so to \u201cforeclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury\u201d when it weighs whether to convict Mangione in the December 2024 killing in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
The judge, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden, also threw out a gun charge but left in place stalking charges that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. <\/p>\n
To seek the death penalty, prosecutors needed to show that Mangione killed Thompson while committing another \u201ccrime of violence.\u201d Stalking doesn\u2019t fit that definition, Garnett wrote in a 39-page opinion, citing case law and legal precedents.<\/p>\n
The ruling disrupted the Trump administration\u2019s bid to see Mangione executed for what U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called a \u201cpremeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.\u201d It was the first capital case brought by the Justice Department in President Donald Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty in the federal and state cases. The state charges also carry the possibility of life in prison. At a recent court hearing, he spoke out against the prospect of back-to-back trials, telling a judge: \u201cIt\u2019s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.\u201d<\/p>\n
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
Mangione, a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later after he was spotted eating breakfast at a McDonald\u2019s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.<\/p>\n
His lawyers have argued that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his arrest into a \u201cMarvel movie\u201d spectacle, including by having armed officers parade him up Manhattan pier after he was flown to New York, and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed even before he was formally indicted.<\/p>\n
Jury selection in Mangione\u2019s federal case is scheduled for Sept. 8, followed by opening statements and testimony on Oct. 13. His state trial is scheduled to begin June 8, but the judge in that case, Gregory Carro, said it could have been pushed back until Sept. 8 if federal prosecutors appealed the death penalty ruling.<\/p>\n
In her ruling, Garnett acknowledged that the decision \u201cmay strike the average person \u2014 and indeed many lawyers and judges \u2014 as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, she said, it reflected her \u201ccommitted effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case. The law must be the Court\u2019s only concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
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