Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old at the center of one of the most closely watched murder cases in recent years, is now mounting a sweeping legal campaign to avoid the death penalty in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The legal battle, unfolding in both state and federal courts, has gripped the nation with its dramatic twists, high-profile personalities, and the broader questions it raises about justice, corporate power, and the limits of federal prosecution.
According to ABC News, Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all state and federal charges stemming from the December 4, 2024, shooting of Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan street. The attack took place outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson was set to attend UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference. Prosecutors allege Mangione stalked Thompson, waited for him to pass by, and then shot him at close range with a 9mm handgun equipped with a silencer.
The brazen nature of the crime—an execution-style killing in broad daylight, targeting one of the country’s most powerful health care executives—sent shockwaves through corporate America and the public at large. As Fox News reported, the assassination was caught on camera, and prosecutors claim Mangione targeted Thompson due to financial and corporate disputes. The attack, and the subsequent manhunt, reignited public anger toward the health insurance industry and raised security concerns among business leaders nationwide.
After the shooting, Mangione fled the scene on a bicycle, cut through Central Park, and took a taxi to a bus station, according to WBFF. He managed to evade authorities for five days, before a tip from a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania—almost 240 miles from Manhattan—led to his arrest. When police apprehended Mangione, they found a backpack allegedly containing the murder weapon, a fake ID, ammunition marked with the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose,” and a red notebook described as his diary. One entry read, “I finally feel confident about what I will do. The target is insurance. It checks every box.”
Federal prosecutors charged Mangione in April 2025 with two counts of stalking, a firearms offense, and murder through the use of a firearm—the last of which makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. The charge is based on a federal statute that permits capital punishment for murders committed with firearms in furtherance of another violent crime. While New York state itself does not allow the death penalty, federal law can supersede in certain cases, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has publicly called for Mangione to face capital punishment, describing the killing as a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Mangione’s legal team, led by high-profile defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has launched a multipronged attack on the prosecution’s case. In a motion filed on October 11, 2025, in Manhattan federal court, they argued that the death-eligible charge must be dismissed because the underlying crime—stalking—does not legally qualify as a “crime of violence.” As detailed in Newsweek, the defense wrote, “Count Three—the only death eligible count in the indictment—and Count Four must be dismissed for failure to state an offense because the stalking crimes charged in Counts One and Two are not ‘crimes of violence,’ as would be required to convict Mr. Mangione on Counts Three and Four.”
The defense further argued that, under the so-called “categorical approach” used by courts, neither of the stalking statutes cited by prosecutors contains an element requiring the use or threatened use of physical force. “Thus, under the categorical approach, the inquiry should end there,” the filing stated. If successful, this argument could remove the only charge that exposes Mangione to the death penalty.
Beyond the legal challenge to the death penalty, Mangione’s attorneys are also seeking to suppress key evidence. They contend that law enforcement officers failed to read Mangione his Miranda rights before questioning him at the McDonald’s where he was arrested, rendering his statements inadmissible in court. Furthermore, they argue that the search of Mangione’s backpack—where police say they recovered the alleged murder weapon and other incriminating items—was conducted without a warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
“Altoona law enforcement failed to follow fundamental Fourth Amendment case law (and basic police procedure) by failing to obtain a search warrant before searching through Mr. Mangione’s backpack and the closed containers within the backpack,” the defense said, according to ABC News. Prosecutors, for their part, have defended the police handling of the arrest and search, insisting that the evidence was lawfully obtained and is crucial to establishing motive and premeditation.
As the legal wrangling continues, Mangione faces the daunting prospect of simultaneous prosecutions in both state and federal courts. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The Blair County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania is also seeking to have Mangione appear in court for a pretrial motion hearing scheduled for November 7, 2025, on state charges of forgery, possession of an instrument of a crime, and giving a false ID to an officer.
The complexity of the case has led Mangione’s attorneys to describe his situation as “untenable,” as they have asked Judge Gregory Carro to dismiss the state case or at least put it on hold while the federal proceedings play out. The next major milestone in the federal case is set for December 2025, when oral arguments on the defense motions will be heard by Judge Miriam Goldberg of the Southern District of New York.
In a notable development last month, a New York judge dismissed two murder charges related to acts of terrorism against Mangione, including the most severe charge of first-degree murder. Justice Gregory Carro ruled that the evidence presented to the grand jury was insufficient to support the terrorism charge, though a charge of second-degree murder remains. Legal experts interviewed by Business Insider have suggested that, even if the death penalty charge survives these latest challenges, the odds of Mangione ultimately being sentenced to death are slim, given the legal hurdles and the rarity of federal executions in New York.
Meanwhile, the case has continued to spark heated debate among the public and legal commentators. Critics of the health insurance industry have seized on the case as a symbol of broader frustrations, while others have raised concerns about the fairness of federal overreach and the risk of prejudicing the jury pool with sensational media coverage and public statements by top officials.
With the legal battle far from over and the stakes as high as ever, all eyes will remain on the federal courthouse in Manhattan this December, where the future of Luigi Mangione—and the boundaries of federal criminal law—will be fiercely contested.
