Pam Bondi seeks death penalty for Luigi Mangione

President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi are pushing to 'revive the widespread use of capital punishment'

(Image credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images)

published 2 April 2025

What happened

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday she was instructing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December.

Bondi's "widely anticipated" decision is part of her and President Donald Trump's "push to revive the widespread use of capital punishment" after lifting former President Joe Biden's federal moratorium, said The New York Times. First, "federal prosecutors would have to convince a group of jurors to vote unanimously for him to be put to death," a task that "may be difficult." After his arrest, Mangione "became the subject of praise and fascination for some people," especially critics of the health insurance industry, The Washington Post said.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to New York State charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. He has not entered a plea in the federal case, since "federal prosecutors have yet to seek a grand jury indictment," The Associated Press said. The cases were expected to "proceed on parallel tracks," with the state charges going to trial first, though it "wasn't immediately clear if Bondi's announcement will change the order."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.