A federal judge has taken the death penalty off the table in the Luigi Mangione case.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett on January 30 dismissed the death-eligible counts from Mangione’s federal indictment, ruling that stalking is not a “crime of violence” that can serve as the predicate for capital punishment. The decision clears the way for Mangione’s federal trial to begin this fall.
“Tortured and strange,” though she said her conclusion may be, Garnett ruled that stalking does not categorically qualify as a crime of violence under federal law.
“No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct,” she wrote. However, she said Supreme Court precedent requires courts to analyze the statutory elements of an offense in a manner “totally divorced from the conduct at issue.”
Federal prosecutors have alleged that Mangione stalked UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson across state lines before fatally shooting him outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024.
To seek the death penalty, the government was required to show that the killing occurred during the commission of an underlying crime of violence.
Mangione’s attorneys argued that stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot make him eligible for the death penalty. They also contended that the decision to pursue capital punishment was political and circumvented federal protocols, ABC News previously reported.
With the capital counts dismissed, Garnett scheduled jury selection to begin on September 8, with opening statements set for October 13, Fox 7 Austin reported.
In a separate ruling, Garnett declined to suppress evidence seized from Mangione’s backpack at the time of his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania. She found that the search fell within recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement, including inevitable discovery, according to ABC News.
This ruling at the federal level comes after weeks of damaging testimony and revelations for the prosecution during the evidentiary hearings in the New York state iteration of the case, The Dallas Express previously reported.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is separately seeking to bring him to trial in state court beginning July 1, according to earlier reporting by ABC News.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to both federal and state charges.
