Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, asked a judge in New York to drop some charges in his federal case, including the only count eligible for the death penalty.
The lawyers, in court documents filed on Saturday, also asked the judge to exclude the use of some evidence in his trial that they said was obtained improperly.
Mr. Mangione faces a number of charges in his federal case, including two stalking counts, a firearms offense and one count of using a firearm to commit murder, which carries a maximum sentence of death.
His lawyers said that the judge should dismiss the firearms-related counts because they rely on classifying the stalking counts as “crimes of violence.” The stalking offenses, the lawyers argued, do not meet that definition and so cannot underpin the charge allowing the death penalty.
Requests like these are a routine part of the legal process, and defense lawyers could file many throughout a case.
Mr. Mangione, 27, was arrested in December at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., five days after a man fitting his description killed Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old health care executive, in Midtown Manhattan.
In the court documents, his lawyers, citing police body-camera footage, said that Mr. Mangione was not read his Miranda rights before he was questioned at the McDonald’s. They also presented evidence that a backpack he was carrying at the time was searched without a warrant.
Evidence from that search and questioning should therefore be ruled inadmissible, they said.
In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that prosecutors would seek the death penalty in Mr. Mangione’s federal case, one of the first requests to use the death penalty since Mr. Trump took office this year.
Last month, the judge in Mr. Mangione’s state case dismissed terrorism charges against him, including a first-degree murder count that carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. The judge overseeing that case said he found the evidence behind the charges “legally insufficient.”
Mr. Mangione still faces a second-degree murder charge in the state case, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life, in addition to other charges. Mr. Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both of his cases. No date has been set for a trial in either.
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
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