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Lawyers for accused assassin Luigi Mangione have continued to bolster their legal arguments to have the most serious charges against him thrown out — along with the potential death penalty.
The 27-year-old returns to court Friday morning for a status conference, where the judge could signal how she intends to rule on motions to throw out two of the four federal charges he faces and whether prosecutors can use damning evidence seized from his backpack after his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.
Although oral arguments already took place, the defense has aggressively argued in subsequent filings that prosecutors have failed to allege an underlying “crime of violence” necessary for the top charge of murder through use of a firearm. That is the only charge Mangione faces that carries the potential death penalty.
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Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, appears in State Supreme Court in Manhattan alongside attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo during an evidence suppression hearing in his case on Friday, December 12, 2025. (William Farrington for New York Post via Pool)
Prosecutors countered in an opposition filing that the defense is relying on irrelevant precedent.
“Here, by contrast, no court has interpreted the ‘conduct that places [the victim] in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury’ element,” federal prosecutors wrote.
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UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson pictured in an undated portrait provided by UnitedHealth. The executive was shot from behind and killed on his way to an investor conference in New York City in what prosecutors have described as a politically motivated assassination. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)
In order to charge Mangione with the federal charge of murder through use of a firearm, prosecutors need an underlying crime of violence. They have alleged that crime to be stalking. However, according to legal analysts, if stalking can be done without violence, even if it wasn’t in the case alleged, the charge could fall apart.
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Mangione is accused of stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson before shooting him in the back outside a New York City hotel on the morning of a planned business conference.
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Luigi Mangione attends an evidentiary hearing in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, at the Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, U.S., December 18, 2025. (Shannon Stapleton/Pool via Reuters)
“It’s like a series of dominos — the only way that the federal government can get to a death penalty charge in their case is if the murder was committed during the course of a violent felony,” Joshua Ritter, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, previously told Fox News Digital. “And the reason that they need that is because they need what’s called a federal hook to get them federal jurisdiction.”
Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota, had come to the Big Apple to meet with Wall Street investors.
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Suspect Luigi Mangione is taken into the Blair County Courthouse on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, in Hollidaysburg, Pa. (Janet Klingbeil via AP)
Surveillance cameras recorded the slaying. Video shows Thompson walking down the sidewalk outside the hotel when a man approaches from behind and opens fire.
Thompson suffered multiple gunshot wounds and collapsed to the ground. The gunman fled and was later spotted making his way uptown on a bicycle. There was at least one eyewitness, who appeared to be unharmed.
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Police arrested Mangione five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where customers and staff said they recognized him from a wanted poster released in connection with Thompson’s murder.
Luigi Mangione is confronted by Altoona, Pennsylvania police in a McDonald’s shortly before his arrest for allegedly murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Altoona Police Department)
Mangione’s defense has a separate motion pending that would have evidence taken from his backpack during his arrest thrown out.
Police said they found the suspected murder weapon and handwritten notes that were critical of the health insurance industry and may indicate Mangione’s alleged planning and a motive.
Judge Margaret Garnett has not yet ruled on either motion and is expected to address the next steps in the case at Friday’s hearing.
Jury selection is scheduled for Sept. 8, with a trial to follow in either October or January, depending on how she rules on the top charges.
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Separately, Manhattan prosecutors have requested a July 1 start date for Mangione’s state trial, which his lawyers have objected to as “unrealistic.”
In a letter to New York Judge Gregory Carro Wednesday, Assistant Manhattan DA Joel Seidemann wrote that the state has an interest, protected by federal law, in taking Mangione to trial first.