Justice Department pushes back on Mangione death penalty challenges

Ministry of Justice Lawyers have pushed back against a series of arguments made by accused killer Luigi Mangione’s defense team, arguing that his challenges to a potential death penalty have repeatedly failed in federal courts for decades.

Mangione can still get a fair trial with the government seeking the death penalty, federal prosecutors said in a 144-page “comprehensive opposition” filed Friday.

“Publicity — even intense — is not new in this area,” Sean Buckley, a lawyer for the federal government, wrote to the judge. “Courts routinely try high-visibility cases here, with strong safeguards against indirect bias, including written juror questionnaires probing media exposure, individual and isolated polling, instructions prohibiting media consumption, witness sequestration, and targeted warnings.”

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Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court for a hearing in the murder case against him for allegedly killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on September 16, 2025. (meaning Curtis Daily Mail/Pool)

The massive lawsuit was in opposition to a slew of appeals raised by Mangione’s defense in September and October — against the death penalty, against the government’s notice of intent to seek the death penalty, and against the federal indictment against Mangione.

Buckley described some of the defense’s arguments as premature, speculative and unsubstantiated.

Law enforcement systematically and deliberately trampled on his constitutional rights by interrogating him without Miranda warnings in violation of the Fifth Amendment and illegally searching his property without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

— Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, writes to the judge

“the Defense movements “They have little to no chance of success, and they are more likely to maintain arguments and raise issues on appeal if Mangione is sentenced to death,” said Nima Rahmani, a Los Angeles trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

Mangione is accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot in the back on video outside the… Manhattan Hotel On December 4, 2024, as he was walking to an investor conference that was supposed to start later that morning.

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Luigi Mangione allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)

Mangione faces charges in New York state and federally in connection with the murder — as well as another set of charges in Pennsylvania in connection with a fake ID and an illegal handgun that police say they found when they arrested him at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona.

But only the federal case carries a potential death penalty, and Buckley said the Justice Department would act within long-standing legal precedent in seeking the death penalty if Mangione is convicted.

“What Defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a restatement of arguments repeatedly rejected by dominant precedents, none of which warrant dismissal of indictment or peremptory denial of a sentence approved by Congress,” he wrote.

UnitedHEALTHCARE CEO is a suspect in the murder of Luigi Mangione in New York

A screenshot of surveillance footage released by the NYPD shows an alleged person wanted in connection with the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024. (NYPD Crime Stoppers)

Mangione’s defense is fighting on multiple fronts. Earlier this year, his team successfully convinced a New York judge to dismiss statewide terrorism charges.

In the federal case, his lawyers asked the judge to dismiss murder with a firearm and stalking charges His federal indictment – And to take the potential death penalty off the table. In the New York and federal cases, they are asking the courts to suppress documents seized from his backpack during his arrest, as well as statements he made before receiving the Miranda warning.

“Law enforcement systematically and deliberately trampled on his constitutional rights by interrogating him without Miranda warnings in violation of the Fifth Amendment and unlawfully searching his property without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman-Agnifilo, wrote to a New York judge on Tuesday.

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Mangione’s lawyers argued that the warrantless search of his belongings during his arrest at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania was illegal. (Southern District of New York)

Buckley responded that the defense’s argument against those charges was legally flawed, the backpack would have been searched regardless, and that the only statement the prosecution planned to use against him was when he allegedly lied about his name in response to a question that did not require a Miranda warning.

According to court filings, one of the security concerns officers had at the scene was the possibility of a bomb in the bag, which they ruled out after searching it, according to prosecutors.

“Mangione’s arrest was valid and the search of his bag was lawful as an arrest warrant or inventory search,” Rahmani told Fox News Digital. “Prosecutors have discretion to seek the death penalty, and defense arguments about pretrial publicity tainting the jury pool and double jeopardy because there were parallel state and federal trials have been recycled and rejected by appellate courts for decades.”

Thompson, 50, was a father of two From Minnesota. He was visiting New York City to attend an investor conference at the time of his murder.

Judge Margaret Garnett has not yet ruled on Mangione’s motions.

Luigi Mangione enters a courtroom in New York City Criminal Court on December 23, 2024. Mangione was arraigned on state charges for the alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Rashid Omar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

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But she agreed to his request to wear civilian clothes Next hearing In this regard.

Mangione is scheduled to return to state court on Monday.

“The remaining arguments are mitigating matters for jurors or the Department of Justice’s death penalty review panel to consider, and are not something a judge can use to impose the death penalty at this stage of the proceedings,” Rahmani said. “The bottom line is there’s no meat on the bone, but that’s what defense attorneys in capital cases are expected to do to try to save their client’s life.”