Luigi Mangione’s lawyers: Justice Department directive to seek death penalty is a social media stunt

Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, filed Friday to prevent federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

Mr. Mangione’s team contends that the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi want the death penalty as a social media stunt.

Ms. Bondi announced on April 1 that she directed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to seek death for Mr. Mangione.

The press release she issued was “political, arbitrary, capricious, a breach of established death penalty protocol,” Mr. Mangione’s team said, adding that “her follow-up Instagram post stating plainly Mangione is guilty of murder … has prejudiced the grand jury process in this District.”

Mr. Mangione is facing 11 federal charges that include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, murder through the use of a firearm, a separate firearms offense and two counts of stalking.

His lawyers argued that, in addition to being motivated by publicity, Ms. Bondi’s department cannot be assumed to be operating in good faith due to the dismissal of a case against New York Mayor Eric Adams and the deportation of Salvadoran citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

“The Attorney General is being consistent with the new culture of the highest levels of the Justice Department, one that values personal will over process, publicity over discretion and partisan politics over justice,” they wrote.