Bondi instructs prosecutors to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione

Attorney General Pam Bondi Tuesday instructed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who stands accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson late last year. 

“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement.  

“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,” she continued. 

Mangione is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, where the executive was set to address an annual investors meeting.

Mangione now faces two murder cases in connection with the killing, one brought by city authorities and the other by federal prosecutors. 

One of Mangione’s four federal charges, murder through use of a firearm, would make him eligible for the death penalty, if convicted. 

He has not yet entered a plea in that case, but Mangione has pleaded not guilty to his 11 state charges, which include murder. 

Bondi’s announcement comes after Trump on his first day in office directed the Justice Department to reinvigorate the death penalty.

Former President Biden’s administration had issued a moratorium on federal executions, and Biden just before his term ended also commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40  people on federal death row. 

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione’s attorney, said in a statement that the Justice Department had “moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric.”

“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi,” Agnifilo said. “By doing this, they are defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people.”

“We are prepared to fight these federal charges, brought by a lawless Justice Department, as well as the New York State charges, and the Pennsylvania charges, and anything else they want to pile on Luigi. This is a corrupt web of government dysfunction and one-upmanship. Luigi is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man’s life,” she continued.

Updated at 1:41 p.m. EDT