Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione, accused of murder, are requesting the dismissal of a federal charge that could lead to the death penalty, arguing it fails to meet legal standards.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that accuse him of shooting and killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December of 2024.
Federal prosecutors claim Mangione followed Thompson in Manhattan, where Thompson had been scheduled to attend an investor meeting at the New York Hilton Midtown. Mangione is accused of waiting for Thompson to walk by before shooting him at close range.
Luigi Mangione, charged with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is shown leaving a court session in New York City, accompanied by police, on September 16, 2025.
Mike Segar/Reuters
In their filing, the defense stated, “This crime, in its general form, can occur without the use or threat of physical force against another person or property.”
The defense further argued that items found in Mangione’s backpack, seized during his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, should be excluded as evidence.
The filing criticizes Altoona law enforcement, claiming they violated basic Fourth Amendment principles and police protocols by not obtaining a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack and its contents.
Prosecutors have previously defended the police handling of the arrest and search, which resulted in the recovery of the alleged murder weapon and writings that investigators said helped explain a motive.
Mangione is accused of shooting and killing Thompson with a 9mm handgun equipped with a silencer on a Midtown Manhattan street on Dec. 4, 2024.
Luigi Mangione appears in court for a hearing on his state murder charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Supreme Court, September 16, 2025 in New York City.
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After a several-day manhunt, Mangione was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police found a backpack that investigators said contained the alleged murder weapon, a fake ID and a red notebook he used as a diary.
“I finally feel confident about what I will do,” one entry said, according to authorities. “The target is insurance. It checks every box.”
A federal grand jury charged Mangione in April with two counts of stalking, firearms offense and murder through the use of a firearm, a charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty, if convicted.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York and Pennsylvania as well as the federal charges. The simultaneous prosecutions put him in what his attorneys have called an “untenable situation” and they’ve asked Judge Gregory Carro to dismiss the state case, or at least put it on hold.
Mangione is also being ordered to appear in a Pennsylvania courtroom regarding those state charges. While he is currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the Blair County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania wants the accused killer to appear in court for a pretrial motion hearing scheduled for Nov. 7.
In Pennsylvania, Mangione has pleaded not guilty to charges of forgery, possession of an instrument of a crime and giving a false ID to an officer.
In September, a New York judge dismissed two murder charges related to acts of terrorism, including the most severe charge, first-degree murder. The judge said the evidence presented to the grand jury was insufficient to support the terrorism charge.
Mangione is due back in federal court in December.
