STORY: Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty.
That's after a federal judge on Friday dismissed murder and weapons charges against the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
"We're all very relieved."
Mangione's lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said her client and his legal team were gratified by the decision.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan said she dropped the murder charge because it was legally incompatible with two stalking charges Mangione still faces.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani explains.
"The government argued that Louis G. Mangione committed the murder with a firearm in furtherance of stalking. The defense argued that stalking was not a crime of violence because stalking can be committed without force. Judge Garnet agreed, and because stalking was not a crime of violence, the judge dismissed the murder charges. And because the murder charge was the only charge that carried the potential death penalty, the judge struck the capital sentence in the case."
Twenty-seven-year-old Mangione still faces possible life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted on the stalking charges.
Also, he still faces murder charges in a separate case brought by state prosecutors.
But the ruling in the federal case is a major blow to prosecutors, who have not decided whether to appeal the decision.
"The Department of Justice probably only charged Mangione because New York doesn't have the death penalty. It abolished it more than 20 years ago. But that's not a good legal reason necessarily to charge Mangione in federal court when it's already been charged by state prosecutors. What they were trying to do is fit the facts of this case into the federal murder statutes. And there was just no clear match. It was like forcing a square peg into a round hole."
Thompson, who led UnitedHealth Group's health insurance business, was shot and killed on December 4, 2024 outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to all charges stemming from Thompson's death, and has been jailed since his arrest in Pennsylvania five days after the killing.
Jury selection for his trial is expected to begin in September.
