U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that she has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, following through on the president바카라s campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment.
It is the first time the Justice Department has sought to bring the death penalty since President Donald Trump returned to office in January with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under the previous administration.
바카라Luigi Mangione바카라s murder of Brian Thompson 바카라 an innocent man and father of two young children 바카라 was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,바카라 Bondi said in a statement. She described Thompson바카라s killing as 바카라an act of political violence.바카라
Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, faces separate federal and state murder charges after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4 as the executive arrived for UnitedHealthcare바카라s annual investor conference.
Mangione바카라s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said Tuesday that in seeking the death penalty 바카라the Justice Department has moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric.바카라
Mangione 바카라is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man바카라s life,바카라 Friedman Agnifilo said in a statement, vowing to fight all charges against him.
The killing and ensuing five-day manhunt leading to Mangione바카라s arrest rattled the business community, with some health insurers hastily switching to remote work or online shareholder meetings. It also galvanized health insurance critics 바카라 some of whom have rallied around Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills.
Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind. Police say the words 바카라delay,바카라 바카라deny바카라 and 바카라depose바카라 were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims.
Mangione바카라s federal charges include murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The state charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to a state indictment and has not yet been required to enter a plea on the federal charges.
Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case expected to go to trial first. It wasn바카라t immediately clear if Bondi바카라s announcement will change the order.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City and whisked to Manhattan by plane and helicopter.
Police said Mangione had a 9mm handgun that matched the one used in the shooting and other items including a notebook in which they say he expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives.
Among the entries, prosecutors said, was one from August 2024 that said 바카라the target is insurance바카라 because 바카라it checks every box바카라 and one from October that describes an intent to 바카라wack바카라 an insurance company CEO. UnitedHealthcare, the largest U.S. health insurer, has said Mangione was never a client.
Mangione바카라s lawyer has said she would seek to suppress some of the evidence.
Former President Joe Biden바카라s Justice Department filed the federal case against Mangione but left it to Trump and his administration to decide whether to seek the death penalty. Because the federal case had been taking a backseat to the state case, federal prosecutors have yet to seek a grand jury indictment, which is required for capital cases.
Trump oversaw an unprecedented run of 13 executions at the end of his first term and has been an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office on Jan. 20 that compels the Justice Department to seek the death penalty in federal cases where applicable.
Bondi바카라s order comes weeks after she lifted a Biden-era moratorium on federal executions.
Biden campaigned on a pledge to work toward abolishing federal capital punishment but took no major steps to that end. While Attorney General Merrick Garland halted federal executions in 2021, Biden바카라s Justice Department at the same time fought vigorously to maintain the sentences of death row inmates in many cases.
In his final weeks in office, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life in prison.
The three inmates that remain are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh바카라s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.
