DOJ formally seeks death penalty in CEO assassination case

Federal prosecutors on Friday filed a formal notice seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man charged with the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thompson was shot dead on a New York sidewalk last December. Prosecutors said Mangione killed Thompson to amplify an ideological message against the insurance industry, according to the BBC. Mangione wrote a manifesto that allegedly included anti-corporate sentiments. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi weeks ago directed prosecutors to pursue the death penalty to deter what she characterized as political violence.

Mangione faces separate federal and state charges, with the death penalty contemplated in the federal case. The maximum penalty for the state charges is life in prison, according to a New York Fox affiliate. Mangione is scheduled for a plea hearing in federal court on Friday afternoon, according to his attorneys’ website.

What did Mangione’s attorneys argue about the death penalty filing? They said ahead of the filing that the U.S. government violated protocol for seeking the death penalty. Its prosecution was biased by an outside source lobbying for capital punishment, they said. Federal prosecutors previously responded to the defense’s request to remove the possibility of a death penalty by saying it was too early in the grand jury process to do so.

What ruling on a similar death penalty motion happened recently? An Idaho judge on Thursday ruled that prosecutors can pursue the death penalty against Brian Kohberger. Kohberger is charged with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022. His lawyers had filed a motion asking Judge Steven Hippler to remove the death penalty as a punishment option due to Kohberger’s autism diagnosis. Hippler ruled there was no evidence that Kohberger’s autism, diagnosed as mild, amounted to an intellectual disability.

Kohberger’s attorneys have also filed several other motions seeking to remove the death penalty, including one saying state authorities violated evidence-gathering procedures. Kohberger’s trial is set to begin in August, according to a Washington NBC affiliate.