Attorney General Pam Bondi has suggested that federal prosecutors seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old former University of Pennsylvania graduate who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson in December.
In a statement released by the Justice Department on Tuesday morning, Bondi characterized the young suspect as a “cold-blooded” assassin: “Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said. “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Bondi also characterized Thompson’s murder as “an act of political violence.”
Gizmodo reached out to the Justice Department for more information.
The news follows on the heels of a recently issued legal memo by Bondi that resurrected the death penalty after the AG under Biden, Merrick Garland, put into place a moratorium on federal executions. “Since our Nation’s founding, the federal government, and nearly every state, has relied upon the death penalty as a just punishment for the most egregious crimes,” that memo read. “The American people, through their elected representatives, have repeatedly reaffirmed the effectiveness of capital punishment in deterring crime, achieving justice for victims, and closure for their loved ones.”
Mangione was arrested in December, nearly a week after Thompson was gunned down in front of his hotel in midtown Manhattan. Security camera footage of the incident shows a figure dressed in gray attire who, after killing Thompson, steps onto an e-bike and rides away. Bullet casings found at the crime scene were etched with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose”—which some have speculated may reference a book about the healthcare industry.
Mangione has become a kind of folk hero to some for his alleged targeting of the private health insurance industry, a business that many Americans feel is predatory, unnecessary, and absurdly costly. When he was arrested, Mangione was allegedly found with a notebook that included rants about the healthcare industry. Despite this (or, perhaps, because of it), online support for Mangione—especially among young people—has been intense. A GiveSendGo fundraiser dedicated to the legal defense of the locked-up murder suspect has raised as much as $775,000.
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