Luigi Mangione, acusado de matar al director general de UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, durante una audiencia en un tribunal de Nueva York, el 21 de febrero de 2025. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post va AP, Pool, Archivo)2025-04-01T15:20:05Z NEW YORK (AP) U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday she has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel on Dec. 4.Mangione, 26, faces separate federal and state murder charges for the killing, which rattled the business community while also galvanizing health insurance critics. The federal charges include murder through use of a firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. The state charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first. It wasnt immediately clear if Bondis death penalty announcement will change the order of how the cases are tried.Luigi Mangiones murder of Brian Thompson an innocent man and father of two young children was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America, Bondi said in a statement. After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trumps agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again. A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for Mangiones lawyers. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to a state indictment and has not entered a plea to the federal charges. President Donald Trump, who oversaw an unprecedented run of executions at the end of his first term, signed an executive order on his first day back in office on Jan. 20 that compels the Justice Department to seek the death penalty in federal cases where applicable.His predecessor, Joe Biden, had issued a moratorium on federal executions.Thompson, 50, was ambushed and shot on a sidewalk as he walked to an investor conference at a hotel in midtown Manhattan. Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 while eating breakfast at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania.Police said he was carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID. He also was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives, authorities said. UnitedHealthcare is the largest health insurer in the U.S., though the company said Mangione was never a client.Among the entries in the notebook, prosecutors said, was one from August 2024 that said the target is insurance because it checks every box and one from October that describes an intent to wack an insurance company CEO. MICHAEL R. SISAK Sisak is an Associated Press reporter covering law enforcement and courts in New York City, including former President Donald Trumps criminal and civil cases and problems plaguing the federal prison system. twitter mailto