Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge ruled Friday, foiling the Trump administration’s bid to see him executed for what it called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding it technically flawed. She wrote that she did so to “foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” as it weighs whether to convict Mangione. Garnett also dismissed a gun...

A New York federal judge on Friday dismissed murder and weapons charges against alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, a major blow to prosecutors that means Mangione no longer faces a possible death penalty if convicted. Mangione, 27, previously pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons and stalking charges for allegedly gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Midtown Manhattan in 2024. Public officials condemned the shocking killing, but Mangione became a folk hero of sorts to some Americans who decry steep healthcare costs and insurance practices. U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett in Manhattan said she dismissed the murder and...

Luigi Mangione won’t face the death penalty for allegedly executing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, a judge ruled Friday — dealing an embarrassing blow to the Justice Department. The 27-year-old still faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted of executing health care honcho Brian Thompson in a December 2024 targeted hit on a Manhattan sidewalk. But Manhattan federal Judge Margaret Garnett threw out the charges against Mangione that could have led to a rare death penalty trial in New York. The jurist found that the death penalty-eligible parts of the case, brought by the US Attorney’s Office for the...

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday took the extraordinary step of firing his embattled investigations commissioner, Mark G. Peters, the culmination of a fierce rivalry between the two powerful men. It was a rare and consequential action by a mayor to remove an investigations commissioner: The position is understood to come with a large degree of independence that allows impartial scrutiny of all areas of government, including the executive branch.