Mangione’s trial for UnitedHealthcare CEO’s assassination could begin before year’s end

Luigi Mangione’s federal death penalty trial for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson could begin before the end of the year, a judge said Friday as he weighed a defense attempt to block the government from making it a capital case.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett said she expects Mangione’s trial to begin in December — or perhaps January 2027, as federal prosecutors have suggested — if the death penalty is still on the table. Otherwise, she added, Mangione could face trial in October.

Regardless, Garnett said, she expects jury selection to begin around September 8. No trial date has been set in the parallel Mangione murder case. Prosecutors previously said they expected the public trial to be first.

Garnett said she will release a written schedule after consulting her calendar and reviewing notes of conversations she had with the court’s jury coordinator.

The judge said she would later rule on defense requests to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, drop some charges and exclude some evidence. Another pretrial conference is scheduled for January 30.

Mangione’s lawyers say authorities damaged his case by turning his arrest in December 2024 in a “Marvel movie” type spectacle and publicly declaring their desire to see him executed before he was even officially charged.

At the same time, they are asking Garnett to drop two of the four charges against him, including murder by firearm that allowed the government to seek the death penalty. They believe that this measure is legally erroneous.

Federal prosecutors say Mangione’s lawyers are wrong on both fronts, countering that the murder charge is legally sufficient and that “pretrial publicity, however intense,” is hardly a constitutional crisis.

Any concerns about public perception can be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, which carry up to life in prison.

Supporters gather at the courthouse

Friday’s hearing was Mangione’s first visit to Manhattan federal court since his April 25 arraignment.

A cause celebre for those disgruntled in the health insurance industry, Mangione once again drew his supporters to the courthouse. Some wore green clothing and carried signs such as “Free Luigi” and “No death for Luigi Mangione.”

Mangione, dressed in a beige prison uniform, was attentive but did not speak once during the nearly three-hour proceedings. After entering the courtroom, he greeted his lead attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo, with handshakes. He nodded as he read documents, sometimes sipping from a plastic bottle of water.

In addition to the death penalty issue, Garnett is considering a defense request — similar to one made in his state case — to bar the government from using certain items found in a backpack during his arrest. The defense argues the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant.

Those items include a gun that police say matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which Mangione allegedly described his intention to “wax” a health insurance executive.

Garnett said she was not inclined to hold a separate hearing on the evidence issue. like the one last month which lasted three weeks in the Mangione state murder case. The judge in the case said he would not rule until May.

Prosecutors argue that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure it did not contain any dangerous items and that the gun, notebook and other evidence would have eventually been found anyway.

Mangione arrested in December 2024

Thompson, 50, was killed on December 4, 2024, while walking to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video shows a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police said “delay,” “refuse” and “drop” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, 27, the scion of a wealthy Maryland family and an Ivy League graduate, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles west of Manhattan.

He has already managed to reduce his arguments in favor of the state. In September, a judge dismissed state terrorism charges against him.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last year that she was ordering federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, saying capital punishment was justified for a “premeditated, cold-blooded murder that shocked America.”

Mangione’s lawyers say Bondi’s announcement, which she followed up with Instagram posts and a television appearance, showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” His remarks tainted the grand jury proceedings that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later, they said.