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Judge rules Luigi Mangione won’t face death penalty
In a notable legal development, Fox News correspondent Nate Foy reports that a judge has dismissed the most severe charge against Luigi Mangione, while also denying the defense’s motion to exclude certain evidence. Legal editor Kerri Urbahn weighed in on the significance of these judicial decisions.
The prospect of the death penalty has been removed from the case against Mangione. The decision came after federal prosecutors announced on Friday that they will not be challenging a judge’s ruling that nullified a charge carrying the death penalty.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District communicated its acceptance of the ruling in a letter, acknowledging U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett’s January 30 decision. This ruling dismissed a murder charge that could have led to capital punishment for Mangione, who stands accused of the December 4, 2024, fatal shooting of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson.
With this development, Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty, following the federal prosecutors’ decision not to contest the judge’s dismissal of the capital punishment charge. This decision marks a significant turn in the case against the accused. (Curtis Means for DailyMail/Pool)
Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty after federal prosecutors on Friday said they won’t appeal a judge’s ruling that dismissed a capital punishment charge against the accused killer. (Curtis Means for DailyMail/Pool)
Despite not being tried on murder charges, Mangione still faces two federal stalking charges.Â
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Sept. 8. Opening statements will begin in October.
Mangione, 27, also faces life in prison at a separate murder trial in state court slated to begin in June. He has pleaded not guilty to Thompson’s killing.Â
To charge Mangione with the federal count of murder through use of a gun, prosecutors need an underlying crime of violence, Garnett said in her January ruling.Â
POLICE SERGEANT DENIES HEARING LUIGI MANGIONE MOTHER’S ALLEGED DAMNING STATEMENT ABOUT CEO KILLING
This 2017 file photo of Brian Thompson was released via Businesswire when he was named CEO of UnitedHealthcare Unit in 2017. (Businesswire)
Garnett wrote that she was bound by Supreme Court precedent.
“Over the course of the last two decades or so, the Supreme Court has embarked upon a legal journey, explained herein, that now requires lower courts to engage in an analysis totally divorced from the conduct at issue and centered on the hypothetically least serious conduct that the charged crime could possibly cover,” she wrote.
Surveillance cameras recorded the slaying. Video footage showed Thompson walking down a Manhattan sidewalk outside a hotel when a gunman approached him from behind and opened fire.
Composite image of Luigi Mangione with inset of the shooting of Brian Thompson (Fox News)
Thompson sustained multiple gunshot wounds and collapsed to the ground. The gunman fled and was later spotted making his way uptown on a bicycle.Â
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