By Jack Queen
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Luigi Mangione, accused of gunning down a health insurance executive, will appear in federal court on Friday in a hearing over whether he should face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
Mangione, 27, is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024. Public officials condemned the assassination.
Mangione previously pleaded not guilty to federal murder, stalking and weapons charges and is behind bars while he awaits trial.
At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan at 11 a.m. ET (1600 GMT), Mangione’s lawyers will argue that a charge of murder with a firearm – the only one that carries the possibility of the death penalty – should be dismissed because prosecutors did not meet the legal requirements for such a charge.
Garnett is separately weighing Mangione’s bid to throw out the indictment altogether and bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty because they allegedly violated his constitutional rights.
New York’s death penalty was declared unconstitutional in 2004, but the ban applies in state cases, not federal cases. Mangione also faces state-level criminal charges, including murder, and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
No trial date has been set in either case.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder, Rod Nickel)
