A federal judge appointed by Joe Biden formally BLOCKED prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of the cold-blooded execution of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, who was nominated by Biden in 2023, dismissed the federal murder charge that would have allowed for capital punishment.
Mangione, 27, is accused of traveling across state lines, stalking a complete stranger, and executing the victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, on a Manhattan street in December 2024, on a public street in Midtown Manhattan using a handgun equipped with a silencer.
Manigone had faced a federal murder indictment that, if prosecuted on the government’s original theory, could have carried the ultimate punishment.
But U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled that the “stalking” charge against Mangione does not technically count as a “crime of violence” under federal statutes, meaning the firearm-related murder charges (Counts Three and Four) cannot legally stand.
As a result, the court granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss those counts, eliminating the government’s ability to seek capital punishment altogether.
The judge openly acknowledged the absurdity of the outcome, noting that no one could seriously dispute the violent nature of the alleged conduct. But she claimed her hands were tied by Supreme Court rulings that require courts to ignore real-world facts and instead analyze crimes based on “hypothetical least serious conduct” under what’s known as the categorical approach.
The Hill reported:
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled it doesn’t meet the legal definition. She noted the “apparent absurdity” of her conclusion and criticized Supreme Court precedent she said is “totally divorced” from actual conduct in criminal cases.
“However, regardless of its own views, a district court is duty-bound to follow binding Supreme Court precedent,” Garnett wrote.
[…]
“The analysis contained in the balance of this Opinion may strike the average person — and indeed many lawyers and judges — as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law,” she wrote.
“But it represents the Court’s committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case,” Garnett continued. “The law must be the Court’s only concern.”[…]
He will now proceed to trial in the federal case on two counts that accuse him of causing Thompson’s death while stalking him.
In addition to the federal indictment, Mangione faces state charges in both Pennsylvania and New York, but he does not face the prospect of the death penalty in those cases.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
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