Prosecutors Will Seek Death Penalty For Accused CEO Assassin Luigi Mangione, A.G. Pam Bondi Announces

On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Justice will seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione.

Mangione made headlines in December when he allegedly murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown New York. Since his arrest – five days following the fatal shooting – Mangione has become a hotly debated figure across the country, with many people viewing him as an outspoken vigilante exposing the healthcare crisis in America.

Bondi declared that she was directing prosecutors toward the federal death penalty as part of “President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

An Ivy League grad, Mangione, 26, faces state and federal charges, all of which he has pleaded not guilty.

Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, shared that she discussed the decision with the department and called Bondi’s directive “barbaric” and “political.” A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office declined to comment.

The use of the federal death penalty was one of the first major changes the Trump administration made once Donald Trump took office in January, with Trump issuing an executive order to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.” 

During Trump’s first term, he administered the first federal execution in almost two decades, putting 13 inmates to death just months into his presidency. Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump made clear that he intended to resume increasing the number of federal executions.

In an attempt to curb Trump’s plans, former President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life in prison.

When Bondi took office in early February, she emphasized her support of Trump’s plans for executions, writing that Biden’s commutations had “severely undermined the rule of law” and “betrayed our sacred duty and broke our promise to achieve justice.”