The lawyers for accused killer Luigi Mangione filed to have the possibility of the death penalty removed.
NBC News reports that on Friday, Mangione’s lawyers filed a 114-page motion requesting that federal prosecutors not be allowed to pursue the death penalty and that the charges against their client be dismissed.
Mangione’s lawyers claim in the documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that the death penalty was a “purely political” decision.
“Because of the issues concerning United Health Care, the larger issues surrounding health coverage, the publicity created by the NYPD leaks, the unconstitutional perp walk, the repeated press conferences of the New York City Mayor and Police Commissioner, and the Mangione case, it had overwhelming international recognition,” the lawyers said in the document.
“As a result, the Mangione case presented an opportunity for the new administration to demonstrate its loathing of the prior administration and to publicly advance its new and aggressive death penalty agenda through one of the most watched criminal cases in decades.”
The lawyers also claim the death penalty is being “arbitrarily imposed in violation” of the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, and the federal Death Penalty Act “lacks constitutional procedures approved by Congress.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in Manhattan, New York, on December 4.
Thompson was attending his company’s annual investor meeting when he was killed.
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On the federal level, Mangione is charged in New York with murder through the use of a firearm, stalking, and a firearms offense. On the state level, he faces firearm charges in Pennsylvania.
In New York, he was facing state charges of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, second-degree murder as an act of terrorism, and criminal possession of a weapon.
A New York state judge dismissed Mangione’s state terrorism charges earlier this week, keeping the second-degree murder charge.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to the remaining New York charges, federal charges, and Pennsylvania state charges, according to NBC News.
October 31 is the deadline for federal prosecutors to respond to the removal of the death penalty. On December 5, Mangione is scheduled for a court appearance in his federal case.
Mangione remains jailed without bond.
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[Feature Photo: Luigi Mangione is escorted into Manhattan Criminal court for his arraignment on state murder and terror charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)]
