{"id":95085,"date":"2026-01-09T19:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T19:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/95085\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T19:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T19:43:07","slug":"luigi-mangiones-lawyers-seek-to-block-death-penalty-in-pivotal-nyc-federal-court-hearing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/95085\/","title":{"rendered":"Luigi Mangione’s lawyers seek to block death penalty in pivotal NYC federal court hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Luigi<\/a><\/p>\n

Luigi Mangione \/ Pennsylvania Department of Corrections<\/p>\n

Luigi Mangione appeared in a New York City federal courtroom on Friday as his lawyers try to bar the Justice Department from\u00a0seeking the death penalty\u00a0for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.<\/p>\n

The pivotal hearing is Mangione\u2019s first federal court appearance since he\u00a0pleaded not guilty\u00a0to murder and stalking charges at his arraignment in April 2025.<\/p>\n

Protesters against the death penalty are expected to rally outside the Manhattan courthouse for the 11 a.m. hearing, as Mangione\u2019s court appearances often\u00a0attract a crowd.<\/p>\n

That said, the courtroom Friday was not full, and there were mostly journalists in the gallery, along with some attorneys, and several members of the public.<\/p>\n

Mangione arrived at court just after 11 a.m. His legs were shackled, but his hands were free. He was wearing a tan prison jumpsuit and shook hands with his attorneys.<\/p>\n

Judge says trial date not likely to be announced any time soon\u00a0
The judge said Friday that the outcome of the motion to dismiss two of the counts against Mangione will impact the trial date, and he therefore thinks the trial date won\u2019t be settled Friday.<\/p>\n

The judge and Mangione\u2019s defense then discussed the evidence found in Mangione\u2019s backpack, including his journal.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s at issue in Mangione\u2019s hearing
New York Law School Professor\u00a0Anna Cominsky\u00a0said the key issues the federal judge will be looking at are whether certain charges should be dismissed and whether the death penalty should be on the table.<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s defense team is trying to get the murder by firearm charge thrown out. That charge allows the federal government to seek the death penalty.<\/p>\n

The judge will also be determining if the contents of Mangione\u2019s backpack should be used as evidence in the trial. The black backpack, which Mangione had when he was arrested, was also at the\u00a0center of pretrial hearings\u00a0in his New York state murder case.<\/p>\n

At issue is whether the police search of Mangione\u2019s backpack was legal as officers went on to find\u00a0a pistol, silencer and notebook\u00a0inside.<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s lawyers argue the evidence found inside the bag should be excluded because police did not have a warrant.<\/p>\n

The judge in the state case is currently deciding\u00a0whether to allow the evidence\u00a0into that trial. A decision is expected by May 18.<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s attorneys say case is tainted
Mangione\u2019s defense attorneys say authorities prejudiced the case against him by turning\u00a0his arrest\u00a0for the 2024 shooting into a \u201cMarvel movie spectacle.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have presented a few arguments as to why this should not be\u00a0a federal death penalty case.<\/p>\n

Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in New York.William Farrington \/ AP
Mangione\u2019s lawyers argue that authorities prejudiced the case by turning his perp walk into a highly choreographed spectacle and declaring their desire to see him executed\u00a0before formally indicting him.<\/p>\n

They also claim Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s previous job with Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm whose clients include UnitedHealthcare\u2019s parent company, is\u00a0a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

They allege Bondi violated an agreement\u00a0when she took office\u00a0to bow out of any matters related to Ballard Partners for at least one year.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors deny Bondi has conflict of interest
Federal prosecutors slammed the defense\u2019s claims as meritless and misleading, arguing there is no conflict of interest with the attorney general because there is no present or future financial gain.<\/p>\n

They also argue that pretrial publicity, even when intense, is hardly a constitutional crisis.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luigi Mangione \/ Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Luigi Mangione appeared in a New York City federal courtroom on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10859,6972,2803,23519,7219,14511,6974,9,24,56,63,65,64,750],"class_list":["post-95085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-arraignment","tag-brian-thompson","tag-court","tag-death-penalty","tag-federal","tag-killing","tag-luigi-mangione","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95085","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=95085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}