Luigi Mangione returns to federal court for pretrial hearing over potential death penalty

(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione returns on Friday to Manhattan federal court, where prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if he’s convicted of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in 2024. 

The appearance follows a three-week hearing in state court during which Mangione tried to convince the judge to exclude some of the critical evidence police said they found in his backpack, including writings and the alleged murder weapon. 

Prosecutors said in a letter Thursday no such hearing is necessary in the federal case.

“The Government searched the contents of the defendant’s notebook pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant that expressly covered, among other things, handwritten materials, including notebook entries, contained within the defendant’s backpack,” prosecutor Sean Buckley wrote.

“To the extent that the defendant now seeks to challenge the validity of the Government’s warrant — an argument the defendant similarly did not make in either his moving or reply papers — that argument would also fail on the merits because the warrant, which disclosed the initial search of the defendant’s backpack by the Altoona Police Department, was supported by ample probable cause,” wrote Buckley.

Earlier this week, prosecutors disputed a defense claim that Mangione should not face the death penalty because of a purported conflict of interest by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The defense said Bondi is continuing to benefit from a 401k established while she worked at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, which represents UnitedHealthcare.

Prosecutors said Ballard has made no contributions to her retirement plan since her Senate confirmation as attorney general, and argued that she stands to gain nothing from a “capital outcome” in the Mangione case.

“There is simply no factual basis for the assertion that outside corporate interests influenced the Attorney General’s charging decision in any fashion. The defendant’s insinuations otherwise rest on an inaccurate financial narrative,” Buckley wrote.

Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, is also trying to fight the possibility of the death penalty by challenging one of the aggravating factors that makes him eligible.

Paresh Patel, an expert on the federal stalking statute who Mangione has added to his legal team, is expected to argue that stalking is not a crime of violence and, therefore, an improper predicate to making the case death penalty eligible.

Prosecutors say the defense is wrong.

“Volitional conduct by the defendant that simultaneously places the victim in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury and that proximately causes the victim’s death necessarily involves the ‘use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another,’ thereby making the offenses charged in Counts Three and Four crimes of violence,” Buckley argued.