Luigi Mangione’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss the New York state murder charges against him in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arguing that the cases against the suspect — Mangione also faces the death penalty in a federal case — amount to double jeopardy.
Mangione, who last week pleaded not guilty in the federal murder case, is also facing charges in Pennsylvania — where he was arrested in December 2024, five days after Thompson’s shooting death — for gun possession.
“As a result of unprecedented prosecutorial one-upmanship, Mr. Mangione now faces three simultaneous prosecutions in three different jurisdictions — one of which is seeking the death penalty, while another is seeking life imprisonment — all for one set of facts,” Mangione’s attorney Karen Agnifilo wrote in the 57-page motion to dismiss to the New York judge, NBC News reported.
The three simultaneous court cases have “led to a legal tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors as they fight for who controls the fate of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione.”
The motion also seeks to suppress key pieces of evidence against Mangione — including a firearm and a notebook where he allegedly wrote about his plan to “wack” an insurance executive, authorities said — found in a backpack upon his arrest that his legal team claims was searched without a warrant. Mangione’s comments to arresting officers and subsequent responses to questioning should also be disqualified as evidence, as Mangione was never told his Miranda rights, his lawyers wrote.
“Yet, despite the gravest of consequences for Mr. Mangione, law enforcement has methodically and purposefully trampled his constitutional rights,” his lawyers wrote.
The New York judge will rule on the motion to dismiss at a June 26 hearing; if the state’s case is not dismissed, Mangione’s lawyers are asking that the terrorism charges he is facing in New York be thrown out, as the grand jury’s indictment had “absolutely no facts to support this theory” to charge with him the post-9/11 statute.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges across all three cases: New York, Pennsylvania, and the federal death penalty case.
#Luigi #Mangione #Seeks #Dismiss #State #Murder #Charge #Citing #Double #Jeopardy
