Luigi Mangione’s defense team filed a sweeping 114-page legal brief Saturday challenging the federal death penalty charge in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione, 27, faces the death penalty for the December 4 shooting of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel where the CEO was scheduled to address UnitedHealthcare investors. The Maryland native and software developer was captured after a five-day nationwide manhunt, with authorities recovering a notebook containing the phrase “The parasites simply had it coming.”
Prosecutors note that Mangione had no business relationship with UnitedHealthcare from 2014 to 2024, choosing the company “solely because they were the largest health insurance company and one of the country’s largest companies by market cap.” By October, his planning had crystallized around Thompson’s investor conference.
Writing in August 2024, roughly four months before the fatal shooting, Mangione expressed growing confidence in his plan.
“I finally feel confident about what I will do. The details are coming together. And I don’t feel any doubt about whether it’s right/justified. I’m glad—in a way—that I’ve procrastinated because it allowed me to learn more about [UnitedHealthcare],” he wrote. “The target is insurance. It checks every box.”
Yet his defense team argues that Attorney General Pam Bondi violated Mangione’s constitutional rights by publicly demanding his execution while a federal grand jury was still considering evidence. Mangione’s lawyers also challenge capital punishment as “randomly applied” and unconstitutional, asking US District Judge Margaret Garnett to bar prosecutors from seeking execution.
Judge Garnett has indicated she would set a firm 2026 trial date at Mangione’s next federal court appearance on December 5, though the death penalty litigation could extend that timeline significantly as either side may appeal her decision.
Legal experts note the steep odds against any death sentence. In 2023, a Manhattan jury failed to unanimously recommend execution for Sayfullo Saipov, an ISIS-aligned terrorist who killed eight bicyclists in a 2017 truck attack. Despite Trump’s strong public support for Saipov’s execution during his first term, that case consumed over five years from indictment to conviction, ultimately resulting in life imprisonment.
Beyond federal murder charges, Mangione battles state murder indictments in Manhattan plus weapons and forgery charges in Pennsylvania, where authorities captured him at a McDonald’s. Last Tuesday, a New York judge dismissed terrorism charges from the state case, ruling them legally insufficient.
Mangione remains in federal custody after pleading not guilty to all charges across the three cases.
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