A federal judge on Friday ruled that prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the killer of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson.
The federal case against Mangione still will proceed on charges that could land him in prison for life without parole.
The 27-year-old Mangione already is on trial on New York State charges for which he faces a sentence of 25 years to life.
Mangione has become a cult figure for a small segment of crackpots and conspiracy theorists since he shot Thompson in the back on a Midtown Manhattan street at 0645 on 4 December 2024 with a 9mm, 3D-printed ghost gun equipped with a suppressor. Indicating a motive of rage at denial of healthcare cost coverage, “delay” was written on a bullet and “deny” and “depose” on two casings.
When arrested five days later in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, Mangione had in his possession a three-page, hand-written screed hostile to corporations. It included the lines “the parasites had it coming” and “I do apologize for any strife and trauma but it had to be done.”
Mangione had suffered from acute back pain and grown distant from his affluent family and friends in the months leading up to the Thompson assassination.
Mangione is social media celebrity, and mainstream entertainment industry and media at times have pandered to the spirit of vigilantism and violence he aroused.
At each stage of New York State pre-trial proceedings that ended in December, fans gathered outside the state court in lower Manhattan to show support.
A 36-year-old Minnesota man with a history of drug, alcohol-related and other offenses was arrested last Wednesday for trying to spring Mangione from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
He claimed at the prisoner intake area that he was an FBI agent bearing a court order to release Mangione.
When asked to produce federal ID, he showed a Minnesota driver’s license, threw down unspecified documents and claimed he was carrying weapons.
He was arrested on charges of impersonating a federal officer and put in the very same jail he tried to get Mangione out of.
The Minnesotan previously filed lawsuits in handwriting against the Pentagon, Chinese and Russian ambassadors. Court documents indicate a history of mental illness.
He was carrying a barbeque fork and a small, pizza-cutting wheel in a bag when he was arrested last week.
Indicating that he could be dangerous, a case is pending against him in New York City for brandishing a gun.
Murders of corporate executives have been rare in the US.
But in the digital age, the Thompson murder is a menacing portent.
Unfortunately, upcoming courtroom drama will sustain the public undercurrent of extreme hostility to health insurance companies, raising risks of violence against other senior executives in the sector and to a lesser extent their subordinates.
By extension, risks to executives in other industries regarded as controversial in some quarters also must be considered higher.
Corporations in all sectors should comprehensively review and where prudent bolster executive protection.
