The federal indictment that makes Luigi Mangione eligible for the loss of life penalty if he is convicted of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson ought to be dismissed as a result of a “torrent of prejudice from a number of public officers” violated his constitutional rights and made it unattainable for him to obtain a good trial, protection attorneys argued in a brand new courtroom submitting Saturday.
Mangione has pleaded not responsible to 4 federal fees, together with one death-eligible rely of utilizing a firearm to commit homicide, that accused him of monitoring Thompson’s whereabouts, touring to New York the place Thompson was attending an investor convention, stalking him on the road after which firing a number of pictures from a 9mm pistol.
The protection conceded there’s a excessive bar to dismiss an indictment resulting from pretrial publicity however argued, “there has by no means been a scenario remotely like this one the place prejudice has been so nice towards a death-eligible defendant.”
Protection attorneys pointed to what they known as a “dehumanizing, unconstitutional” perp stroll in New York, throughout which Mangione was televised clambering out of a helicopter in shackles.
“This was achieved solely to prejudice him and with out the slightest legit regulation enforcement goal,” protection attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Avi Moskowitz argued.
Luigi Mangione is escorted into Manhattan state courtroom in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.
Seth Wenig/AP
“The US Legal professional Normal in addition to regulation enforcement personnel and the very best New York Metropolis elected official took each alternative to prejudice Mr. Mangione’s possibilities of having a good grand jury listening to and honest authorized proceedings on this loss of life penalty case,” the protection’s submitting stated. “Inserting their very own, and their administration’s, political agendas above the constitutional safeguards assured to each felony defendant, and particularly one dealing with a loss of life sentence, they serially violated the structure, the Federal Guidelines of Felony Process, this courtroom’s native guidelines and conventional notions of equity.”
The protection pointed to public statements, social media posts and tv appearances by Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi that they stated made clear the choice to hunt the loss of life penalty was based mostly on politics and never advantage.
In April, Bondi directed federal prosecutors to hunt the loss of life penalty for Mangione if he’s convicted of Thompson’s homicide.
“Mangione’s homicide of Brian Thompson — an harmless man and father of two younger youngsters — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi stated in a press release on the time.
“The Legal professional Normal of the USA is telling the general public that based mostly on her private expertise as a capital prosecutor who tried loss of life penalty instances all through her profession that Mangione is responsible and ought to be executed,” the protection stated. “As well as, she additionally known as the incident ‘an act of political violence’ regardless that Mr. Mangione was charged in a grievance with stalking a single one that was not a politician, or an activist, and who was not in any other case engaged in politics.”
In the meantime, a decide this week dismissed two state murder charges associated to acts of terrorism as Mangione made his first Manhattan courtroom look in 5 months.
Decide Gregory Carro tossed out first and second-degree homicide fees that accused Mangione of homicide as a criminal offense of terrorism. The decide stated the proof offered to the grand jury was inadequate to help the terrorism cost.
The remainder of the indictment stays, with the decide refusing to dismiss one other second-degree homicide cost, to which Mangione has pleaded not responsible.
“We respect the Court docket’s determination and can proceed on the remaining 9 counts, together with Homicide within the Second Diploma,” the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace stated in a press release following the ruling.
Mangione’s subsequent courtroom look is in December.
