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Reuters
Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty if convicted of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge has ruled.
US District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed two of the four federal charges against the 27 year old, including murder through use of a firearm, which carried the potential death sentence.
Mangione was arrested days after he allegedly shot Thompson as he was walking into a conference on a busy Manhattan street in December 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, including the two remaining federal counts of stalking and separate state murder charges.
Jury selection in the federal trial is slated to begin on 8 September with opening statements starting on 13 October.
But state prosecutors are seeking to try Mangione as soon as 1 July.
In her ruling, Judge Garnett said two of the four federal charges did not "meet the federal statutory definition of a 'crime of violence' as matter of law".
She noted that her decision was "solely to foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury" ultimately responsible for determining Mangione's conviction.
Garnett also said prosecutors would be allowed to feature evidence from Mangione's seized backpack he was wearing at the time of his arrest.
Among the items in the backpack were a ghost gun, fake IDs, and a notebook with writings that detailed Mangione's private health care system grievances.
Defence attorneys had sought to dismiss that evidence from trial, arguing that authorities obtained it in an illegal search.
Mangione is also facing nine charges in a separate case brought by New York state prosecutors, including second-degree murder.
