Luigi Mangione moves to dismiss murder, terrorism charges in New York

MANHATTAN (CN) — Luigi Mangione, the Maryland man accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December, on Thursday moved to dismiss his murder and terrorism charges in New York state.

Mangione faces dueling prosecutions in the Thompson killing; in addition to the charges in New York, he is being tried in federal court in the Southern District of New York, where he is eligible for the death penalty.

In his Thursday motion to drop the state charges, he claims that the “unprecedented” nature of the two prosecutions violates the double jeopardy and due process clauses and his rights to a fair trial.

“Three hundred and seventy-seven people were murdered in New York City in 2024; only one, however — the Dec. 4, 2024, shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — has led to a legal tug of war between state and federal prosecutors as they fight for who controls the fate of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione,” Mangione claims in the memo, filed in New York County Supreme Court.

State and federal prosecutors want to prosecute him “at the exact same time for the exact same act,” Mangione says. It’s a rare situation, he argues, as in past cases of concurrent prosecutions, the state case is put on hold while the federal prosecution moves first, as opposed to getting “two bites at the apple to convict Mr. Mangione.”

“Here Mr. Mangione is being forced to fight two cases simultaneously for the identical act at the exact same time,” he claims.

Though the two cases are for the same incident, Mangione adds that the cases are based on “conflicting prosecution theories” that could prevent him from adequately defending himself. In the federal case, he is charged with stalking Thompson and then killing him with a firearm. In the state case, he’s charged with terrorism for targeting a civilian population: health care CEOs.

“The dueling theories of these two concurrent prosecutions create the scenario where, in defending against New York’s terrorism-related charges, Mr. Mangione could not argue that his alleged conduct was targeted toward one individual, rather than a civilian population, without then incriminating himself in the federal case that charges him with stalking that one individual,” Mangione claims.

Of the terrorism charges, Mangione claims that Manhattan prosecutors missed the mark. He writes that New York’s highest court has warned against the improper use of the state’s unique 9/11-era law, ruling the following in 2012:

“The concept of terrorism has a unique meaning and its implications risk being trivialized if the terminology is applied loosely in situations that do not match our collective understanding of what constitutes a terrorist act.”

Still, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office holds that Mangione aimed to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population” by killing Thompson. Mangione likened that logic to trying “to fit the square peg of murder into the round hole of terrorism,” and claims that the grand jury failed to establish the necessary requirements for terrorism in his indictment.

The memo addresses several issues in addition to dismissal. Mangione seeks to suppress evidence that law enforcement seized from their “warrantless” search of his backpack during his arrest, as well as statements he made to law enforcement prior to being read his Miranda warnings.

“Police conducted this warrantless search even though there were no exigent circumstances as Mr. Mangione was already in handcuffs, the backpack was on a table over six feet away and Mr. Mangione was separated from this table by a wall of armed officers,” he argues in the filing.

Officers recovered a 3D-printed pistol, magazine, 9mm bullets, a silencer, zip ties, and essentials like socks, boxers, batteries and a phone charger in Mangione’s backpack when he was arrested on Dec. 9, 2024.

Mangione also seeks to preclude the Manhattan District Attorney from eliciting testimony from lay non-eyewitness identification testimony at trial — he claims that prosecutors want to ID him in court with law enforcement officials who only saw Mangione on security footage.

“Here, the proposed witnesses are not eyewitnesses to the crime,” Mangione says.

Any interpretation of who is the shooter in the viral security camera clip of Thompson’s killing should be left up to the jury, Mangione adds.

Mangione is due back in court on his state charges on June 26. His court appearances thus far have attracted fanfare. He’s been celebrated by some as a folk hero for his outspoken criticism of the for-profit healthcare industry, which was evident from his social media posts prior to Thompson’s killing.

Thompson was on his way to an investors’ conference in Manhattan before security footage shows him being gunned down by a hooded assailant. Authorities arrested Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days later after a multistate manhunt.

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