Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson, walks on the day of an arraignment hearing, at New York Supreme Court in New York City, Dec. 23, 2024.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Luigi Mangione will not face a possible death penalty sentence in the New York federal criminal case where he is charged with killing health insurance CEO Brian Thompson, a judge ruled Friday.
Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Garnett, in an order Friday, dismissed two of the four criminal counts that the 27-year-old Mangione faced in the case, one of which would have exposed him to potential execution if convicted.
The potential maximum sentence for the remaining two counts for causing the UnitedHealthcare executive’s Thompson’s death under federal stalking laws is “life in prison without parole,” Garnett noted.
Thompson, 50, was fatally shot on a midtown Manhattan street in December 2024, while walking to an investors’ event for his company’s parent, UnitedHealth Group.
The third count accused Mangione of the murder of Thompson through the use of a firearm during that alleged stalking.
That count, which the judge tossed out, would have made Mangione eligible for a possible death sentence. The fourth count, which was also dismissed, accused Mangione of the use of a firearm equipped with a silencer during the stalking.
“The crimes charged in Counts Three and Four require that the stalking crimes in Count One and Two meet the federal statutory definition of ‘crimes of violence’ as a matter of law,” Garnett wrote.
“The Defendant has moved to dismiss Counts Three and Four on that ground that this requirement is not satisfied.”
Luigi Mangione appears with his defense attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo as U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett announced he will not face the death penalty during his hearing in Manhattan Federal Court on murder charges for the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City, U.S., January 30, 2026, in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
The judge, who admitted that the analysis she applied to that argument “may strike the average person — and indeed many lawyers and judges — as tortured and strange,” ruled that Supreme Court precedent bound her to conclude that the first two counts did not meet the definition of “crimes of violence.”
“The motion is GRANTED.”
Separately on Friday, Garnett dismissed a motion by Mangione’s defense team to suppress the contents of the backpack in his possession when he was questioned and detained by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson’s killing.
A police search of that backpack initially found a loaded gun magazine, and then later a handgun, a silencer, and a red notebook, among other items. Mangione’s attorneys had argued that the search was not legally valid.
Mangione also faces murder charges in state court in Manhattan, where prosecutors are seeking to try him before the federal trial.
There is no death penalty option for criminal cases lodged in New York state courts.