By stefan armitage
Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in what authorities are calling a politically motivated act of violence.
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The announcement came Tuesday (April 1) from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said in a statement: “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.”
Mangione faces four federal charges tied to the December shooting, including using a firearm to commit murder and interstate stalking resulting in death — both of which carry the maximum penalty of capital punishment, The Independent reports.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Bondi described the killing as a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination,” and claimed it “may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons” due to its occurrence “in the middle of New York City in broad daylight.”
Federal authorities allege Mangione “stalked and murdered” Thompson in an “act of political violence.”
The 50-year-old CEO was shot dead outside a New York hotel on December 4, setting off a massive manhunt across several states. Mangione managed to evade capture for weeks until a McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania recognized him and notified law enforcement.
A deep dive into Mangione’s background revealed he was reportedly disgruntled with the American health insurance system, which investigators say served as the motive behind the shooting. His anger toward healthcare companies has since ignited nationwide debate over industry practices—and drawn public attention to the case for reasons beyond the courtroom.
Mangione is currently being held in a federal prison in New York as he awaits trial. While he has already pleaded not guilty to the state charges, he has yet to enter a plea on the federal ones.
In New York, Mangione faces 11 state criminal counts, including first-degree murder and murder as a crime of terrorism, per BBC News. If convicted on all counts, he would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The federal and state cases are expected to proceed in parallel.
Though federal death penalty cases are rare, Mangione’s charges place him among a small list of individuals eligible for the highest level of punishment available under US law.
As of now, there are only three inmates on federal death row: Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 people in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting; Dylann Roof, the white supremacist responsible for killing nine people in the Charleston church massacre; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber who killed three and injured hundreds.
Mangione’s case has made international headlines and garnered sympathy from segments of the public, with some even painting him as a “public hero”.
But federal prosecutors appear determined to pursue the maximum consequences for what they describe as a politically charged and calculated killing.
