NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Tuesday that she has instructed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a hotel in New York City on December 4th.
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Mangione, 26, is facing separate murder charges, both federal and state, for the homicide that shocked the business community and at the same time incited critics of health insurance companies. The federal charges include firearm murder, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The state charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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Thompson, a 50-year-old, was ambushed and shot on a sidewalk while on his way to an investors’ conference at a hotel in downtown Manhattan.
If Mangione is found guilty, could he be sentenced to the death penalty?
The prosecutors have said that both cases will be processed in parallel, and it is expected that the state charges will go to trial first. It was not immediately clear if Bondi’s announcement about the death penalty will change the order in which the cases are tried.
“The murder of Brian Thompson, an innocent man and father of two young children, at the hands of Luigi Mangione was a premeditated and cold-blooded murder that shocked the United States,” Bondi stated in a press release. “After careful consideration, I have instructed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case,” said the Attorney General of the United States.
What did Mangione’s defense say?
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione’s lawyer, said that the Department of Justice’s decision to apply the death penalty demonstrates that it has “gone from dysfunctional to barbaric.”
“The decision to execute Luigi is political and goes against the recommendation of local federal prosecutors, the law, and historical precedent,” Agnifilo said in a statement. “While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government is moving to commit premeditated and state-sponsored murder of Luigi. In doing so, they are defending a broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people.”
Mangione pleaded not guilty to the state charges and has not pleaded guilty to the federal charges.