Federal prosecutors have backed away from pursuing the death penalty against the Ivy League graduate accused of gunning down a healthcare executive on a Manhattan sidewalk.
According to the New York Post, in a letter filed Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said it will not challenge a January ruling from Judge Margarett Garnett that removed capital punishment from the case against Luigi Mangione.
The judge previously determined that the federal charges did not legally qualify for the death penalty, citing flaws in how prosecutors framed the alleged crime.
Mangione, 27, is accused of carrying out a targeted shooting that killed Brian Thompson, the head of UnitedHealthCare, on Dec. 4, 2024, in Midtown Manhattan.
Although the death penalty is no longer an option, Mangione still faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted at his federal trial, which is scheduled to begin in September.
The federal case will not technically charge him with murder. Instead, prosecutors are pursuing a charge that he stalked Thompson, a count they say led to the death of the father of two.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty.
He is also set to stand trial in state court in June, where he faces a separate murder charge that likewise carries a potential life sentence.
Judge Garnett ruled that federal prosecutors could only seek capital punishment if they proved the killing occurred during another “crime of violence.”
Because the government’s underlying allegation was stalking, the judge found that the legal threshold was not met.
In her decision, Garnett acknowledged the outcome might appear unusual to the public, writing that it could seem “tortured and strange,” but emphasized that “the law must be the court’s only concern.”
With prosecutors declining to appeal, the ruling stands, taking the death penalty permanently off the table in the federal case while leaving Mangione to fight charges in two courts over the high-profile killing.
