A federal judge on Friday ruled that prosecutors are not allowed to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed the federal murder charge that would have been the vehicle by which prosecutors could seek capital punishment, finding it improper on technical bounds. She also dismissed a gun charge, but left the stalking charges in place. The maximum sentence for these charges is life in prison.
For prosecutors to seek capital punishment, they would have needed to show that Mangione killed while committing another violent crime and stalking doesn’t meet that criteria, Judge Garnett wrote in her opinion.
However, it wasn’t a total loss for the prosecution. Judge Garnett ruled that they can use evidence from the backpack he had during his arrest. Authorities found a handgun and a notebook that allegedly contained the defendant’s intentions to “wack” an executive at an insurance company. Lawyers for Mangione had attempted to get the evidence thrown out and argued that the search was illegal.
The prosecutors have 30 days to appeal the judge’s decision on the death penalty, but the U.S. attorney’s office has not commented on whether it will.
The judge recognized that her decision “may strike the average person – and indeed many lawyers and judges – as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law” but said it demonstrated her attempt to apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges.
Jury selection for the federal case is scheduled for Sept. 8, and opening statements and testimony are slated to begin Oct. 13. The date for the state trial is still pending, however the Manhattan district attorney’s office asked that it be scheduled for July 1. The judge said the federal case will be paused if the U.S. attorney appeals her decision, but she would otherwise proceed as if the federal case is the only case unless she hears from those involved in the state case.
