Luigi Mangione’s federal death penalty trial could start before the end of the year
Mangione latest: What happened in federal court?
Luigi Mangione’s federal death penalty trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson could begin before the end of the year, a judge said Friday while weighing a defense bid to bar the government from making it a capital case.
NEW YORK (AP) - Luigi Mangione’s federal death penalty trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson could begin before the end of the year, a judge said Friday while weighing a defense bid to bar the government from making it a capital case.
What's next:
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett said she expects Mangione’s trial to begin in December — or possibly January 2027, as federal prosecutors suggested — if the death penalty is still on the table. If not, she said, Mangione could stand trial in October.
Either way, Garnett said, she expects jury selection to begin around Sept. 8. No trial date has been scheduled in Mangione’s parallel state murder case. Prosecutors previously said they anticipated the state trial to be first.
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His lawyers are asking a judge to bar prosecutors from pursuing capital punishment, arguing that officials unfairly prejudiced the case through inflammatory public statements and a highly publicized arrest before he was even indicted.
Garnett said she would issue a written schedule after looking at her calendar and reviewing notes of conversations she's had with the court’s jury coordinator.
The judge said she would rule at a later date on the defense's requests to prevent prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, throw out some charges and exclude certain evidence. Another pretrial conference is scheduled for Jan. 30.
What they're saying:
Mangione’s lawyers contend that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his December 2024 arrest into a "Marvel movie" spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed even before he was formally indicted.
At the same time, they are asking Garnett to throw out two of the four charges against him, including the murder by firearm charge that has enabled the government to seek the death penalty. They argue that it is legally flawed.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 11: Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 11, 2025 in New York City. Mangione's lawyers will argue to h
Federal prosecutors say Mangione’s lawyers are wrong on both fronts, countering that the murder charge is legally sufficient and that "pretrial publicity, even when intense" is hardly a constitutional crisis. Any concerns about public perceptions can be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, which carry the possibility of life in prison.
Friday's hearing was Mangione’s first trip to Manhattan federal court since his April 25 arraignment.
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court for a pretrial evidence hearing in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in New York, on December 9, 2025. (Photo by John Angelillo / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Mangione, wearing a beige jail uniform, was attentive but didn’t speak once during the nearly three-hour proceeding. After entering the courtroom, he greeted his lead attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo, with handshakes. He nodded along while reading documents, sometimes sipping from a plastic water bottle.
In addition to the death penalty issue, Garnett is weighing a defense request — similar to one in his state case — to bar the government from using certain items found in a backpack during his arrest. The defense argues that the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant.
Those items include a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which Mangione purportedly described his intent to "wack" a health insurance executive.
Garnett said she is not inclined to hold a separate hearing on the evidence issue like one last month that took three weeks in Mangione’s state murder case. The judge in that case said he won’t rule until May.
Prosecutors contend police were justified in searching the backpack to make sure there were no dangerous items and that the gun, notebook and other evidence would have eventually been found anyway.