Luigi Mangione is set to be arraigned in New York federal court on Friday on a four-count indictment for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A federal grand jury indicted Mangione this month on four counts — murder through the use of a firearm, firearms offense and two counts of stalking.
His arraignment on the charges is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday in Manhattan federal court.
Mangione is accused of stalking Thompson outside the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan and then shooting him to death on Dec. 4, 2024. Thompson was heading to an investors’ conference when he was shot and killed.
The 26-year-old was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days later and was initially charged in a federal complaint in connection with the murder.
The charge of murder through the use of a firearm would make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
Hours before Mangione’s arraignment in federal court, federal prosecutors submitted formal notice they intend to seek the death penalty if he’s convicted, citing, in part his alleged desire “to provoke broad-based resistance to the victim’s industry” by killing Thompson.
Ahead of the filing of the indictment, Attorney General Pam Bondi already signaled her intention to pursue the death penalty in the case as part of the president’s push to reinstate capital punishment.
The “notice of intent to seek the death penalty” is the government’s formal step to inform the court and lay out its arguments.
Federal prosecutors claimed in their new filing that Mangione deserves the death penalty because of “the impact of the victim’s death upon his family, friends and co-workers” and because “he expressed intent to target an entire industry and rally political and social opposition to that industry, by engaging in an act of lethal violence.”
Prosecutors also alleged that in the selection of the site and victim, the suspect made clear he sought “to amplify an ideological message, maximize the visibility and impact of the victim’s murder, and to provoke broad-based resistance to the victim’s industry.”
Mangione’s lawyers have already called the decision to seek the death penalty “barbaric” and a “political stunt” and are actively trying to stop the government from seeking the death penalty if he’s convicted, arguing the Justice Department made a “political, arbitrary, capricious” breach of protocol.
Mangione also faces state charges in connection with the shooting. He has pleaded not guilty.
He is being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
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