US Attorney General seeks death penalty for health CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione

Luigi Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, over the death of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Photo / Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

• US Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione.
• Mangione is charged with the premeditated murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York.
• His attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, called the simultaneous federal and state charges “highly unusual”.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday asked federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who allegedly gunned down an American healthcare CEO in a brazen attack.

“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson – an innocent man and father of two young children – was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said.

“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case.”

Bondi also called the death “an act of political violence” that “may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons”.

Mangione is charged in both state and federal court in the shooting of Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare chief executive officer. In the state case, Mangione has pleaded not guilty and could face life imprisonment with no parole if convicted.

Images released by the New York Police Department showing the suspect in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Early on December 4, Mangione allegedly tracked Thompson, walked up behind him and fired several gunshots from a pistol with a silencer, federal prosecutors said. He had travelled to New York by bus from Atlanta about 10 days before the crime.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9 following a tip from staff at a McDonald’s restaurant, after a days-long manhunt.

His attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has sought clarity on how simultaneous federal and state charges would work, calling the situation “highly unusual”.

Thompson’s murder brought to the surface deep public frustration with the lucrative US commercial healthcare system, with many social media users painting Mangione as a hero.

- Agence France-Presse