Luigi Mangione should face death penalty for ‘cold-blooded assassination’ of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Pam Bondi orders
The Trump administration will take the rare step of seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione for his alleged cold-blooded killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — pushing for what would be the first Manhattan federal execution in 70 years.
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” US Attorney Pam Bondi said in a press release Tuesday.
“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,” Bondi added.
But Mangione’s legal team shot back that “a lawless Justice Department” is trying to “murder” the 26-year-old alleged assassin for “political” reasons.
“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi,” attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said in a statement. “By doing this, they are defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people.”
New York state outlawed the death penalty in 2004. But federal prosecutors can still execute defendants — if they convince a jury to unanimously sign off on a government-sanctioned killing.
The feds last sought capital punishment in Manhattan in 2023 against terrorist Sayfullo Saipov, who was convicted of killing eight people and wounding several others after mowing them down in an ISIS-inspired rampage on the West Side Highway. But jurors could not reach a consensus to sentence Saipov to death, and he instead received eight life sentences.
The last person to be executed after being convicted in Manhattan federal court was Gerhard A. Puff, who was found guilty of killing an FBI agent in 1952 and killed via the electric chair in 1954. One year earlier, married couple Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed after a sensational case in which they were convicted in the same court of spying for the Soviet Union.
Mangione is currently charged with the early-morning murder of Thompson in separate cases brought by state and federal prosecutors.
The state case is currently farther along, with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office having secured an indictment from a grand jury.
Southern District of New York federal prosecutors said in the waning days of the Biden administration that the state case was expected to go to trial first. It was not clear Tuesday if Bondi’s decision would impact that timeline.
Mangione faces life in prison if convicted in state court of an upgraded murder as an act of terrorism charge.
Law enforcement sources had previously told The Post that the insurance industry had lobbied the feds to bring a case against Mangione, and that the government was considering asking for the death penalty.
Mangione’s lawyer claimed Tuesday that Bondi had overruled the local Manhattan federal prosecutors by demanding that they ask for the death penalty against Mangione. An SDNY spokesman declined to comment. Local prosecutors typically make a recommendation to Washington, DC, officials in capital punishment cases, but the US Attorney has the final call.
“By seeking to murder Luigi Mangione, the Justice Department has moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric,” Friedman Agnifilo said in her statement. “Their decision to execute Luigi is political and goes against the recommendation of the local federal prosecutors, the law, and historical precedent.”
“We are prepared to fight these federal charges, brought by a lawless Justice Department, as well as the New York State charges, and the Pennsylvania charges, and anything else they want to pile on Luigi,” the attorney added.
“This is a corrupt web of government dysfunction and one-upmanship. Luigi is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man’s life.”
The 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania grad allegedly used a 3D-printed ghost gun equipped with a homemade silencer to execute Thompson outside a Midtown Hilton hotel where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company was holding its annual investor conference, prosecutors say.
He’d been plotting the attack for months and wrote in his notebook about plans to “wack” the head of a medical insurance company, alongside angry tirades against the industry, court papers allege.
Mangione, who hails from a prominent Maryland family, allegedly had the notebook on him when Pennsylvania cops arrested him at a McDonald’s in Altoona five days after the shocking slaying. Prosecutors have also revealed that he was carrying duct tape and zip ties in his backpack at the time.
Since his arrest, Mangione has garnered a cult-like following of supporters who have decried what they’ve called America’s corrupt healthcare system.
More than $20,000 in donations poured into an online fundraising page managed by Mangione’s defense team Tuesday after Bondi’s announcement.
“LUIGI BABE I AM WITH YOU UNTIL THE END!!!” wrote one donor, who pledged $100 and gave her name as “Stefanie.” “This is absolutely disgusting, immoral, unconstitutional, and wrong on every level,” the donor added. “I hope your lawyers DRAG them for EVERYTHING they’re trying to bring against you!!! Keep your head high my little bambino!!!!”
A gaggle of goo-goo-eyed groupies, mostly young women, has packed the gallery at his court appearances. One secret admirer even snuck a heart-shaped note to him in a pair of socks he was allowed to bring to his latest circus-like court hearing — but Mangione refused to wear the footwear because he did not find them fashionable, according to a recent legal filing.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and is being held without bail at a Brooklyn federal lockup.
