BBC Information, Washington DC
US prosecutors will search the demise penalty for Luigi Mangione, the person accused of taking pictures useless UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.
Legal professional Common Pam Bondi mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday that she had directed federal prosecutors to hunt capital punishment for the “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination”.
Mr Thompson was shot useless outdoors a resort in New York on 4 December. Police arrested Mr Mangione, 26, days later in Pennsylvania after a nationwide manhunt.
He has pleaded not responsible to state costs, and has but to enter a plea for separate federal costs. He’s awaiting trial in a New York jail.
Within the press launch, Bondi mentioned Mr Thompson’s homicide “was an act of political violence” and that it “might have posed grave danger of demise to extra individuals” close by.
Investigators say Mr Mangione was motivated to kill Mr Thompson, 50, due to anger with US medical health insurance firms.
A lawyer for Mr Mangione known as the choice “barbaric”, accused the federal government of “defending the damaged, immoral, and murderous healthcare business”, and mentioned Mr Mangione was caught in a tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors.
“Whereas claiming to guard in opposition to homicide, the federal authorities strikes to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored homicide of Luigi,” mentioned Karen Friedman Agnifilo in an announcement.
Mr Mangione is dealing with 11 state prison counts in New York, together with first-degree homicide and homicide as against the law of terrorism.
If convicted of all of the counts, he would face a compulsory sentence of life in jail with out the potential for parole.
However federal prosecutors have additionally individually charged Mr Mangione for utilizing a firearm to commit homicide and interstate stalking leading to demise. These costs make him eligible for the demise penalty.
Prosecutors have mentioned the federal and state circumstances will transfer ahead parallel with each other.
EPAMr Mangione is being held on the Metropolitan Detention Heart (MDC) Brooklyn.
New York prosecutors have already shared some proof of their case in opposition to him, together with a optimistic match of his fingerprints with these found on the crime scene.
In keeping with New York District Legal professional Alvin Bragg, Mr Mangione arrived in New York Metropolis on 24 November and stayed in a Manhattan hostel utilizing a pretend ID for 10 days earlier than finishing up the assault in opposition to Mr Thompson.
The healthcare boss was shot within the again by a masked assailant on 4 December as he was strolling right into a resort the place the corporate he led was holding an traders’ assembly.
A nationwide search led police to Mr Mangione 5 days later at a McDonald’s tons of of miles away in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Police mentioned that after they discovered Mr Mangione, he was in possession of a ghost gun – a firearm assembled from untraceable elements – a pretend ID, a passport and a handwritten doc indicating “motivation and mindset”.
Mr Thompson’s killing ignited a fraught debate about how the US healthcare system operates.
Some Individuals, who pay extra for healthcare than individuals in some other nation, expressed anger over what they see as unfair remedy by insurance coverage corporations.
US Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned in December that the rhetoric on social media within the wake of the killing was “terribly alarming”.
“It speaks of what’s actually effervescent right here on this nation, and sadly we see that manifested in violence, the home violent extremism that exists,” he informed CBS’s Face the Nation.
