The former Ivy League computer scientist turned suspected corporate assassin likely won’t face federal charges, avoiding any risk of the death penalty since New York doesn’t have one, experts say.
Murder is generally not a crime that falls under federal jurisdiction except in special circumstances. Hiring a hit man who crosses state lines to commit murder for hire is a federal crime, but crossing state lines yourself to commit one is not.
Luigi Mangione, 26, faces a second-degree murder charge in New York state in connection with the ambush shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot and killed by a masked assassin outside a Hilton hotel in Manhattan on December 4. the laws are defined differently than those in most other states, and first-degree charges in the Empire State are generally reserved for special cases, including against the murder of a member of law enforcement or murders mass.
“It is possible, but unlikely, that Mangione will be charged at the federal level,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who now runs a private practice in Los Angeles. “The case has received a lot of attention, and it is unclear what the Trump Justice Department will do, but a federal prosecution requires a federal jurisdictional hook-up, such as the commission of another federal crime or substantial nexus with interstate commerce.”
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Luigi Mangione screams as police officers restrain him as he arrives for his extradition hearing at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, December 10, 2024. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)
Blair County Prosecutor Peter Weeks’ office has already said it plans to move forward with its case against Mangione, but will allow New York’s most serious charges to prevail.
“It is very likely that the prosecution will be conducted in the United States by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg,” Rahmani said.
Federal authorities usually intervene because they believe it is necessary to impose harsher penalties or because they can bring more resources to bear than a local department, according to Nicole Parker, a former FBI agent. But the New York Police Department is well equipped and has already built a strong case, she said.
“[The] The NYPD is strong and they’re going to handle this tough,” she told Fox News Digital. “The question is the prosecutor. Is Alvin Bragg going to go easy on this guy?”
On the heels of her trial defeat in the manslaughter case against Marine veteran Daniel Penny, a case that sparked criticism of Bragg’s priorities and policies, she expects her office to build a strong case against Mangione. Investigators reportedly matched his fingerprints and gun to the murder scene.
“My personal opinion is that it stays with the NYPD; they charge it locally. It’s a solid case, they’ve worked hard. [on]and I think they will get a very strong result,” she said.
The death penalty in New York was abolished twenty years ago.
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Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group)
“New York banned the death penalty 20 years ago, so capital punishment is not an option there,” Rahmani said. “But even if Mangione is federally charged, the only aggravating factor in favor of the death penalty is that the murder involved extensive planning and premeditation.”
The death penalty is generally reserved for the worst of the worst criminal cases. Even if New York had the death penalty, other aggravating factors such as additional victims, the defendant’s criminal history, or the fact that the murder occurred during the commission of another crime do not exist in this case, he said.
Luigi Mangione (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
“This was not an act of terrorism or an equally heinous crime,” he said. “Despite all the attention it has received, this would not normally be a death penalty case.”
Additionally, it is rare for the federal government to seek the death penalty, but it does happen in cases of extreme violence, such as the Boston Marathon bombing, which left three people dead and hundreds injured. . Prosecutors can use it as leverage to extract confessions.
Sending bombs through the mail, like Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, is also a federal crime. He committed suicide in prison last year while serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Justice Department records show the federal government has executed 16 people since 2001, starting with the Oklahoma City bombing deaths. Timothy McVeigh and, eight days later, American drug trafficker Juan Raul Garza, who had two men killed and executed a third himself.
The suspected shooter in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, possibly Luigi Mangione, is seen flirting with an inn employee on surveillance footage before the Dec. 4 shooting. (NYPD)
Notably, 13 of these executions took place during President Trump’s first term. He returns to the White House next month and announced he would expand the death penalty.
There are currently 40 federal inmates on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Centerand the list includes surviving Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as well as Dylann Roof, who massacred nine parishioners at a South Carolina church.
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The change of hands from the Biden-Harris administration to the second Trump administration could also hamper a potential federal case, Rahmani added.
“The other problem is that Trump’s new U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York won’t be confirmed and sworn in for more than a month at the earliest, and by then the Manhattan DA’s office will be well into the process. case,” he said. . “Under DOJ’s ‘Small Politics,’ federal prosecutors do not intervene in a pending state case unless there is a substantial federal interest that is not justified under the proceedings against the State.”
