US Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi says determination is predicated on President Donald Trump’s agenda to cease crime and ‘Make America Secure Once more’.
US Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi has mentioned that she has directed prosecutors to hunt the loss of life penalty towards Luigi Mangione, the person accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
It’s the first time the Justice Division has sought to deliver the loss of life penalty since US President Donald Trump returned to workplace in January with a marketing campaign vow to renew federal executions.
Bondi’s determination to pursue the loss of life penalty is available in a high-profile case, reported world wide, towards Mangione, who has drawn a legion of supporters vehemently against what they are saying are abuses by the healthcare business.
Thompson’s killing alarmed the company world, the place some well being insurers swiftly switched to distant work or on-line shareholder conferences. However the case additionally channelled some Individuals’ deep frustrations with medical insurance corporations which were accused of denying many important care as a result of value.
Mangione’s writings and phrases on bullets recovered from the scene mirrored animus towards well being insurers and company America, authorities have mentioned.
Surveillance video confirmed a masked gunman taking pictures Thompson from behind. Police say the phrases “delay,” “deny” and “depose” had been scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase generally used to explain insurer techniques to keep away from paying claims.
“Luigi Mangione’s homicide of Brian Thompson – an harmless man and father of two younger youngsters – was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi mentioned in a press release on Tuesday that described Thompson’s killing as “an act of political violence”.
“After cautious consideration, I’ve directed federal prosecutors to hunt the loss of life penalty on this case as we supply out President Trump’s agenda to cease violent crime and Make America Secure Once more,” Bondi mentioned.
Trump oversaw an unprecedented run of executions on the finish of his first time period and has been an outspoken proponent of increasing capital punishment. Bondi’s order comes weeks after she lifted a moratorium on the federal loss of life penalty that had been imposed beneath former President Joe Biden’s administration.
In his closing weeks in workplace, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 folks on federal loss of life row, changing their punishments to life in jail.
Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, is accused of gunning down Thompson on December 4 exterior a Manhattan resort the place UnitedHealthcare was about to carry an investor convention. Thompson, who was 50 and had two youngsters in highschool, labored for many years inside UnitedHealthcare and its dad or mum firm.
Mangione faces separate federal and state homicide prices for the killing. The federal prices embrace homicide by way of the usage of a firearm, which carries the opportunity of the loss of life penalty. The state prices carry a most punishment of life in jail. Mangione has pleaded not responsible to a state indictment and has not entered a plea to the federal prices.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case anticipated to go to trial first. It wasn’t instantly clear if Bondi’s announcement will change the order.
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman-Agnifilo, has mentioned she would search to suppress a number of the proof seized throughout his arrest. She has additionally taken challenge with the parallel prosecutions, accusing “warring jurisdictions” of turning Mangione right into a “human ping-pong ball”.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370km) west of New York Metropolis, after a five-day manhunt.
Police mentioned Mangione had with him a 9mm handgun that matched the one used within the taking pictures and different objects together with a pretend ID and a pocket book described by authorities as a “manifesto” by which they are saying he expressed hostility in the direction of the medical insurance business and rich executives.
Among the many entries within the pocket book, prosecutors mentioned, was one from August 2024 that mentioned “the goal is insurance coverage” as a result of “it checks each field” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance coverage firm CEO.
UnitedHealthcare is the biggest well being insurer within the US, although the corporate mentioned Mangione was by no means a shopper.
After his arrest, Mangione was whisked by airplane and helicopter again to New York and walked slowly up a Manhattan pier in a extremely choreographed spectacle by a throng of officers with assault rifles and a contingent that included New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams.
