Mangione Lawyers Say Case Has Been 'Fatally Prejudiced'

Luigi Mangione's lawyers urged a judge on Saturday to bar federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arguing that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his arrest into a "Marvel movie" spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed. "There is a high bar to dismissing an indictment due to pretrial publicity," Mangione's lawyers wrote in their 114-page filing. "However, there has never been a situation remotely like this one where prejudice has been so great against a death-eligible defendant.

• Fresh from a legal victory that eliminated terrorism charges in Mangione's state murder case, his lawyers are now fighting to have his federal case dismissed, seizing on US Attorney General Pam Bondi's declaration prior to his April indictment that capital punishment is warranted for a "premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America," the AP reports.

• Bondi's statements and other official actions—including a highly choreographed perp walk that saw Mangione led up a Manhattan pier by armed officers, and the Trump administration's flouting of established death penalty procedures—"have violated Mr. Mangione's constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case," his lawyers argued in a court filing.
• Mangione's defense team, led by former Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo, implored US District Judge Margaret Garnett, a Biden appointee, "to correct the errors made by the government and prevent this case from proceeding as a death penalty prosecution."
• Bondi announced in April that she was directing Manhattan federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione. It was the first time the Justice Department said it was bringing a capital case after President Trump returned to office Jan. 20 with a pledge to revive federal executions, which his predecessor Biden had put on hold.

• Mangione's lawyers argue that Bondi's announcement—which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance—showed the decision was "based on politics, not merit" and, they said, her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later.
• Trump, who oversaw an unprecedented run of 13 executions at the end of his first term, offered his own opinions about Mangione on Thursday—despite court rules that prohibit any pretrial publicity that could interfere with a defendant's right to a fair trial. "Think about Mangione. He shot someone in the back, as clear as you're looking at me or I'm looking at you. He shot— he looked like a pure assassin," Trump told Fox News.
• Federal prosecutors have until Oct. 31 to respond. Mangione is due back in court in the federal case Dec. 5, days after the start of pretrial hearings in his state case. No trial date has been set for either case.