Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty after judge nixes two federal counts

Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty for allegedly fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge ruled Friday, delivering a blow to prosecutors.

Judge Margaret M. Garnett dismissed two of the four federal counts against Mangione: murder through use of a firearm, which carries a potential death sentence, and a related firearms offense.

Mangione still faces two federal stalking counts, which carry a maximum prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole. He has pleaded not guilty.

The judge also ruled that Mangione’s federal trial can feature evidence seized from the backpack he was wearing when he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Authorities have said the backpack contained a ghost gun, fake IDs, a notebook and other writings detailing Mangione’s grievances against the private health care system in the United States.

Mangione’s lawyers pushed to bar that evidence from the trial, arguing in part that the arresting officers conducted an illegal search. The prosecution team has forcefully rebutted that contention.

“The search was reasonable under the facts of this case,” Garnett wrote in her decision Friday.

The 27-year-old is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024, as the executive was heading to an early-morning investor conference. The killing set off a frantic manhunt across the region.

Mangione faces nine counts in a separate case brought by New York state prosecutors, including second-degree murder and various weapons charges. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, too.

Garnett’s pivotal rulings came a day after a 35-year-old Minnesota man was charged with impersonating an FBI agent in an apparent attempt to spring Mangione from federal lockup in Brooklyn.

Authorities arrested Mark Anderson at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn late Wednesday. In his backpack, Bureau of Prisons workers found a barbecue fork and a “round steel blade” that resembled a pizza cutter, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.