A truck displays pictures of Luigi Mangione on April 25, 2025 in New York City, as he was set to appear for the arraignment on charges that he murdered the CEO of UnitedHealthcare last year. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
Luigi Mangione, 26, appeared in federal court on Friday for the first time after his indictment on federal charges of killing the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson.
Federal prosecutors formally filed notice with the court Thursday that they plan to seek the death penalty. Mangione pleaded not guilty on Friday.
What's unusual in his case is that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced earlier this month she was already directing federal prosecutors to seek Mangione's execution.
It's the first death penalty case the Department of Justice is tying to President Trump's Day One executive order restoring the executions of people on federal death row, and committing to pursue the death penalty for all severe crimes that demand its use.
The Trump administration's pursuit of the death penalty for Mangione marks a new development in the shifting politics of capital punishment in the United States, which has seesawed for more than half a century.
"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. 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 said in an statement.
Mangione's attorneys asked a federal court to prevent federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. In court records filed April 11, the lawyers argued Bondi's directive prior to his indictment and her public statements were political and broke established Justice Department protocol on the death penalty.
"Because the Attorney General has chosen to proceed in this way, Mr. Mangione's Due Process rights have already been violated and the manner in which the Government has acted has prejudiced the grand jury pool and has corrupted the grand jury process," the attorneys wrote in the filing.
They're asking the court to bar Bondi from making future public statements that could infringe upon Mangione's right to a fair trial.
Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, agreed that Bondi's announcement - weeks before Mangione's indictment on April 17 - was rare.
The reference to carrying out Trump's agenda, "in combination with the unusual timing in this case, suggests that the death penalty is being used here to achieve some sort of political purpose," Maher said in an interview.
The nonprofit organization doesn't take a position on the death penalty, but is critical of how the punishment is applied in certain cases.
Federal prosecutors in New York haven't responded to a request for comment on the perception of politics in the Mangione case.
In court filings in response to Mangione's lawyers' claims of potential grand jury bias, prosecutors said the federal court has limited authority to intervene with grand jury proceedings. Prosecutors for their part also argued that it was premature, before his indictment, for Mangione to challenge the death penalty in his case.
Maher said over the last half-century, the political leanings of the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidency contributed to dramatically different approaches to the federal death penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 in a landmark case declared the death penalty unconstitutional. The Court decided states and the federal government were imposing capital punishment in an arbitrary and inconsistent manner that was racially and otherwise discriminatory. The justices ruled that the lack of standards in implementation amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Then the pendulum swung again, and the federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act