BBC News, Washington DC
US prosecutors seek the death penalty of Luigi Mangione, a man accused of shooting and death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who died in December.
Attorney General Pam Bondy said in a statement Tuesday that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek penalties for “premeditated, cold-blooded assassinations.”
Thompson was shot dead outside a hotel in New York on December 4th. Police arrested Mangion 26 days later in Pennsylvania after a nationwide manhunt.
He pleaded not guilty to the state's charges and has not yet entered a separate federal charge plea. He is currently awaiting trial in a New York prison.
In a press release, Bondi said Thompson's murder was “an act of political violence,” which “may have pose a serious risk of death to nearby adders.”
Investigators say Mangion was trying to kill Thompson, 50, due to anger at U.S. health insurance companies.
Mangion's lawyers called the decision “a wild bar” and accused the government of “advocating for a broken, immoral, murderous healthcare industry,” and said Mangion was caught up in a tug of war between the state and federal prosecutors.
“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government is moving to commit murders sponsored by Luigi's pre-embedded state,” Karen Friedman Agnifilo said in a statement.
Mangion faces 11 state detectives in New York, including first-degree murder and murder as terrorist crimes.
If convicted on all counts, he will face a mandatory prison sentence for life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, federal prosecutors also separately accused Mangion of murder and interstate stalking with firearms, leading to his death. These charges result in him being subject to death penalty.
Prosecutors say federal and state cases will move forward in parallel with each other.
EPAMangion is being held at Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Brooklyn.
New York State prosecutors have already shared some evidence in their case against him, including a positive match between his fingerprints and a positive match against those found at the crime scene.
Mangion arrived in New York City on November 24th and stayed at a Manhattan hostel using a fake ID for 10 days before carrying out the attack on Thompson.
The healthcare boss was shot in the back by a masked assailant as he was walking to a hotel he led on December 4th.
A nationwide search led police five days later to Mangion of McDonald, hundreds of miles away in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Police said when he found Mangion, he had a ghost gun – a gun assembled from the untraceable part – a fake ID, passport and a handwritten document showing “motivation and thinking.”
Thompson's murder sparked a widespread debate about how the US healthcare system works.
Many Americans have expressed anger over what is considered unfair treatment by insurance companies than people in other countries.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in December that rhetoric on social media after the murder was “very surprising.”
“We're talking about what's really bubbled up in this country. Unfortunately, we see it manifested in violence, a violent extremism within the country that exists,” he told CBS's face.
