After Death Penalty Filing, Mangione Enters His Plea

The man facing a federal murder charge in the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson pleaded not guilty Friday as prosecutors formally declared their intention to seek the death penalty against him. Luigi Mangione, 26, stood with his lawyers as he entered the plea, leaning forward toward a microphone as US District Judge Margaret Garnett asked him if understood the indictment and the charges against him, the AP reports. Mangione answered, "Yes." Asked how he wished to plead, Mangione said simply, "not guilty" and sat down.

Mangione's arraignment in the killing last December attracted several dozen people to the federal courthouse in Manhattan. The defendant, who has been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest, arrived at court in a mustard-colored jail suit. Late Thursday night, federal prosecutors filed a required notice of their intent to seek the death penalty. That came weeks after US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she would direct federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case. Mangione's lawyers have argued that Bondi's announcement was a "political stunt" that corrupted the grand jury process and deprived him of his constitutional right to due process. They had sought to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

The federal indictment includes a charge of murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The indictment, which mirrors a criminal complaint brought after Mangione's arrest, also charges him with stalking and a gun offense. Mangione faces separate federal and state murder charges in the killing of Thompson, 50, who was shot to death outside a Manhattan hotel as the executive arrived for UnitedHealthcare's annual investor conference. The state murder charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case expected to go to trial first, but Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the defense team would seek to have the federal case take precedence because it involves the death penalty.

(More Luigi Mangione stories.)