A federal judge blocked prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione.
He is accused of shooting to death the CEO of a health insurance company in 2024, in New York.
The victim, Brian Thompson, director of UnitedHealthcarewas shot on a Manhattan street on December 4 of that year, as he was leaving his hotel.
Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed two federal charges, murder and carrying a weapon with a silencer, that could earn Mangione the death penalty.
This option “aims only at ruling out the death penalty as a punishment that the jury can consider,” the judge justified in her decision.
The 27-year-old suspect still faces charges in his federal stalking case, and at the state level for murder, which could give him life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jury selection in the federal trial begins on September 8 and arguments begin on October 13.
A state trial date for Mangione has not yet been set.
In both cases, the man has pleaded not guilty to the accusations against him.
He is accused of having shot Thompson, 50, in cold blood, after which he fled.
He was captured five days later at a fast food restaurant in the state of Pennsylvania, about 370 km from the scene of the crime.
Luigi Mangionethe son of a wealthy family in Baltimore, Maryland, became for some a symbol of Americans’ anger against health insurance companies, accused of privileging their benefits to the detriment of their services.
You may be interested: They arrest a man who posed as an FBI agent to free Luigi Mangione
Leave a Reply