Luigi Mangione's lawyers challenge federal death penalty charge in CEO killing

Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League graduate accused of fatally shooting a UnitedHealthcare executive on a Manhattan sidewalk last year, asked a federal judge on Saturday to remove the possibility that he would face the death penalty, arguing his murder and gun charges should be dropped because his rights were violated during his arrest.

Manhattan federal prosecutors charged Mangione with two counts of stalking, murder through the use of a firearm, and illegal gun possession after they say he staked out health insurance executive Brian Thompson ahead of a Dec. 4, 2024, investor conference in midtown, then shot him in the back with a homemade gun before fleeing to Altoona, Pennsylvania. Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

After a weeklong manhunt, employees in an Altoona McDonald’s tipped off local police that a person fitting the shooter’s description was inside the restaurant.

Defense lawyers argued that the responding officers surrounded Mangione, a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, and began to interrogate him without informing him of his right against self-incrimination — known as a Miranda warning.

Mangione’s lawyers said in 90 pages of court briefs filed over the weekend that their client was not free to leave the restaurant once questioning began, given the large police response, and was in custody even though he had not yet been officially arrested.

During the interview, Mangione, who was backed against a wall with at least eight officers around him, answered questions, allegedly lying about having traveled to New York and showing officers a fake New Jersey driver’s license.

During the detention, Altoona police Officer Christy Wasser searched his backpack and found a gun, a magazine clip and other incriminating evidence.

“Now realizing she had made a potentially devastating mistake by thoroughly searching the backpack of a murder suspect in a significant New York press case without a warrant, Wasser suddenly stated that she was searching through the backpack at McDonald’s to make sure there ‘wasn’t a bomb or anything in here’ before putting the backpack in the car,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote in her motion to dismiss the two charges. “The falsity of that comment was made clear seconds later when another officer at McDonald’s stated, 'Now that we found that [i.e., the loaded magazine], let’s just bring it back' to the precinct.”

According to the court filing, one officer covered his body-worn camera for 20 seconds to prevent their conversation from being recorded.

Defense lawyers argue the result of this search should be suppressed during the federal trial because police did not have a warrant or sufficient cause to look through the bag. They said it took local police seven hours before a search warrant was secured to legally search the bag and seize the evidence.

Pennsylvania authorities charged Mangione with illegal weapons possession, having a fake driver’s license and lying to police. The Altoona Police Department could not  be reached for a response to the brief. The Blair County District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

New York State and federal authorities secured separate indictments against Mangione in Thompson’s murder.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged him with murder as part of a terrorist act and other charges. Last month, Judge Gregory Carro dismissed that count of the indictment, but kept other murder and weapons charges intact.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed in April to seek the death penalty for Mangione if he’s found guilty on the federal charge of murder with a firearm.

For Mangione to be eligible for the death penalty, the fatal shooting has to be accompanied by a “crime of violence,” defense lawyers argued. The stalking and fake identification charges do not qualify for that, they said.

Mangione will appear in federal court Dec. 5, but his state case is expected to be tried first.