Lawyers for Luigi Mangione request that a federal court prevent the US Justice Department from pursuing the death sentence

Washington, DC: Calling the move a “political stunt”, attorneys for Luigi Mangione, the man suspected of murdering United Healthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson, have asked a federal court to prevent the US Justice Department from pursuing the death sentence, CNN reported.

Mangione’s attorneys have requested a judicial intervention, arguing that the Justice Department should be prevented from pursuing the death sentence because it violated Mangione’s due process rights and failed to follow specific procedures. Days after US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department will seek the death sentence in Mangione’s case, his attorneys have made their plea.

They claim that the grand jury pool was compromised by Bondi’s public remarks. “The stakes are really high.” As a political stunt, the U.S. government plans to kill Mr. Mangione,” Luigi Mangione’s lawyers wrote to the court.

They said that “Mr. Mangione’s counsel asked for three months to prepare a fulsome mitigation submission to the Department of Justice’s Capital Committee and was ignored.”

For allegedly murdering Thompson in March outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan, Mangione, 26, is charged with both state and federal murder. According to CNN, he entered a not guilty plea to the state counts.

A federal criminal complaint was filed against Luigi Mangione. He hasn’t been charged with any federal crimes yet, however. In a “hastily assembled” conference with federal prosecutors in New York during the last days of the Biden administration, Mangione’s attorneys reportedly urged against the death sentence. They were subsequently informed, nonetheless, that the Capital Case committee had not yet reached a conclusion.

According to his solicitors, they then asked for three months to submit a more thorough application with mitigating circumstances, but they were informed that a judgement would be made prior to that time.

According to Mangione’s lawyers, “Ultimately, any mitigation would have fallen on deaf ears in any event, as the Attorney General was plainly concerned only with ‘the President’s directive’ and with the ‘Make America Safe’ policies of the administration instead of the facts of this case,” according to CNN.

Bondi ordered federal prosecutors to execute Luigi Mangione, the man suspected of killing Thompson, on April 1. Bondi called the murder a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked the nation.”

Bondi said in a statement, “America was appalled by Luigi Mangione’s cold-blooded, planned execution of Brian Thompson, an innocent man and father of two small children. As we implement President Trump’s plan to curb violent crime and “Make America Safe Again”, I have instructed federal prosecutors to pursue the death sentence in this case after giving it considerable thought.

The US Department of Justice claims that Mangione’s actions were the result of extensive preparation and forethought.” On December 4, 2024, Luigi Mangione allegedly followed and killed Brian Thompson, an executive at UnitedHealthcare. The killing was a violent political act. According to the statement, Mangione’s acts constituted a great deal of preparation and premeditation, and since the murder occurred in public with onlookers around, there may have been a serious danger of death for other people.

“Following federal murder charges handed down on Dec. 19, 2024, Attorney General Bondi has now directed Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky to seek the death penalty in this case,” said the statement.

Donations to Mangione’s legal defence fund have flooded in since Bondi’s announcement. More than USD 850,000 has been donated by his supporters, many of whom have recently mentioned the Justice Department’s intention to pursue the death sentence.