Luigi Mangione has pleaded not responsible to a federal homicide cost within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as prosecutors formally declared their intent to hunt the demise penalty towards him.
Mangione, 26, stood together with his attorneys as he entered the plea, leaning ahead towards a microphone as US District Choose Margaret Garnett requested him if understood the indictment and the costs towards him.
Mangione stated, “sure.” Requested how he wished to plead, Mangione stated merely, “not responsible” and sat down.
The formal technique of placing fees to Mangione for the killing final December attracted a number of dozen individuals to the federal courthouse in Manhattan, together with former Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served round seven years in jail for stealing labeled diplomatic cables.
Mangione has been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest.
Late on Thursday evening, federal prosecutors filed a required discover of their intent to hunt the demise penalty.
That got here weeks after US Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi introduced that she could be directing federal prosecutors to hunt the demise penalty for what she referred to as “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
It was the primary time the Justice Division stated it was pursuing capital punishment since President Donald Trump returned to workplace on 20 January with a vow to renew federal executions after they had been halted beneath the Biden administration.
Mangione’s attorneys have argued that Bondi’s announcement was a “political stunt” that corrupted the grand jury course of and disadvantaged him of his constitutional proper to due course of.
That they had sought to dam prosecutors from searching for the demise penalty.
Mangione’s federal indictment features a cost of homicide by means of use of a firearm, which carries the opportunity of the demise penalty.
The indictment, which mirrors a legal criticism introduced after Mangione’s arrest additionally fees him with stalking and a gun offense.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a distinguished Maryland actual property household, faces separate federal and state homicide fees after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, outdoors a Manhattan lodge on 4 December as the manager arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor convention.
The state homicide fees carry a most punishment of life in jail.
Surveillance video confirmed a masked gunman capturing Thompson from behind.
Police say the phrases “delay,” “deny” and “depose” had been scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase generally used to explain how insurers keep away from paying claims.
The killing and ensuing five-day search resulting in Mangione’s arrest rattled the enterprise group, with some well being insurers deleting images of executives from their web sites and switching to on-line shareholder conferences.
On the identical time, some medical insurance critics have rallied round Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty medical payments.
Mangione was arrested on 9 December in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 370 kilometres west of New York Metropolis and whisked to Manhattan by airplane and helicopter.
Police stated Mangione had a 9mm handgun that matched the one used within the capturing and different gadgets together with a pocket book wherein they are saying he expressed hostility towards the medical insurance business and rich executives.
