Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has pleaded not guilty to all federal charges.
According to BBC, the 26-year-old who was arrested last year after the murder of the health insurance company UnitedHealth care CEO in December 2024 outside a Manhattan hotel has denied all the charges of murder and stalking.
His not guilty plea means that Mangione, a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, will now face trial in which the prosecutors are seeking his death penalty if found convicted.
Mangione, on Friday, April 25, 2025, arrived at the Lower Manhattan court wearing a prison outfit, handcuffs, where he acknowledged that he had read the indictment against him and told the judge that he is “not guilty.”
What did the federal prosecutors say?
The federal prosecutors who filed to seek the death penalty in this case have argued that he carried out Thompson's murder "to amplify an ideological message" and spark resistance to the health insurance industry.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who directed prosecutors to seek capital punishment, said in April that Thompson's death was "an act of political violence", while Mangione's lawyers previously called discussion of executing him "barbaric."
During Friday’s 35-minute hearing, Judge Margaret Garnett tried to set a pre-trial schedule, but Mangione's lawyers kept raising objections on both federal and state charges in New York.
By the end of the hearing, the judge agreed to Mangione's lawyers' demand that they require months to go through prosecutors' "three terabytes" of evidence including footage, data from social media and financial and evidential materials from state prosecutors.
The judge has decided that the trial will not happen until 2026, while the court date to finalise the trial schedule is set for December 5, 2025.
