The person accused of gunning down United Healthcare’s CEO exterior a Manhattan resort is now jailed in New York, awaiting arraignment Monday on a state homicide indictment after he was returned to the town in dramatic trend to face fees in a number of courts.
Shackled and sporting an orange jail jumpsuit, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was escorted Thursday by closely armed law enforcement officials and whisked by air from Pennsylvania to Manhattan, the place he appeared in a packed courtroom on federal fees that would carry the demise penalty.
The Ivy League graduate, who prosecutors say inveighed towards the medical health insurance business and rich executives in his writings, was not required to enter a plea to federal fees of homicide, stalking and firearms fees within the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson. The state indictment fees Mangione with homicide as a terrorist act.
Right here’s what’s subsequent within the circumstances:
Jailed in Brooklyn
Mangione is being held with out bail at Metropolitan Detention Heart, the identical federal jail the place hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried are presently detained.
The infamous Brooklyn facility, the one federal lockup within the metropolis, has been variously described as “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy” due to deplorable situations, rampant violence, dysfunction and a number of deaths.
The federal Bureau of Prisons has mentioned it’s rising staffing to make up for staggering shortfalls, however situations have been so stark on the jail, which homes about 1,100 inmates, that some judges have refused to ship individuals there.
State fees pending
Apart from the federal fees filed Thursday, Mangione should nonetheless reply to a state homicide indictment.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace charged Mangione with homicide as an act of terrorism, which carries a most sentence of life in jail with out parole. He’s additionally charged with state weapons offenses and possession of a faux ID.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 circumstances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state fees anticipated to go to trial first.
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, argued in court docket Thursday that the terrorism allegations within the state case and stalking fees within the federal grievance seem like at odds.
“Those are two completely different theories,” she mentioned. “These seem like different cases.”
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom in 2019 upheld a longstanding constitutional rule permitting state and federal governments to prosecute somebody for a similar crime.
Subsequent court docket look
Mangione is about to be arraigned Monday in Manhattan on the state indictment, in accordance with Bragg’s workplace.
The College of Pennsylvania alum, who hailed from a distinguished Maryland household and had additionally lived in Hawaii, had been anticipated to be arraigned Thursday on the state fees earlier than the federal fees preempted that look.
Within the federal case, Mangione may subsequent return to court docket for a bail listening to or for a preliminary listening to if prosecutors don’t receive a grand jury indictment by mid-January.
Loss of life penalty looms
New York successfully successfully abolished its demise penalty by 2007 and the final execution within the state was in 1963. However the federal demise penalty stays in impact.
The federal grievance filed towards Mangione features a rely of homicide by firearm, which carries the opportunity of the demise penalty if he’s convicted.
Federal prosecutors haven’t mentioned if they may search the demise penalty. That call might be made in coming months by Justice Division officers in Washington, probably after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.
President Joe Biden’s administration put a moratorium on federal executions quickly after he took workplace in 2021, however that hasn’t stopped federal prosecutors from looking for the demise penalty.
In distinction, Trump’s administration carried out 13 executions within the final six months of his first time period.
Pennsylvania fees on standby
Mangione additionally faces forgery and firearms fees in Pennsylvania stemming from his arrest final week, however these will probably not be addressed till the New York fees are resolved.
He initially fought makes an attempt to be returned to New York, however finally waived extradition and a preliminary listening to on the Pennsylvania fees on Thursday.
“He is now in their custody,” Blair County District Lawyer Peter Weeks mentioned after Mangione was extradited to New York. “We intend to keep our case active and we intend to essentially revisit the case when the defendant is available for prosecution in Blair County.”
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Related Press reporter Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this story.
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