**Video is from previous coverage of Luigi Mangione pleading not guilty to charges in December 2024**
NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Luigi Mangione asked a New York federal judge on Saturday to dismiss some criminal charges, including the only count from the federal indictment brought against him for which he could face the death penalty. december murder Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, lawyers said prosecutors should also be prevented from using statements he made to law enforcement officers and his backpack, where a gun and ammunition were found.
He said Mangione did not know his rights before being questioned by law enforcement officers, who arrested him after he shot Brian Thompson as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference.
He said officers did not obtain a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the Dec. 4 fatal shooting of Brian Thompson as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
A multi-state manhunt began after the murder, when the suspected shooter fled the scene and drove to Central Park on a bike before taking a taxi to a bus depot that serves several nearby states.
Five days later, police received a tip from a McDonald’s about 233 miles (375 kilometers) away in Altoona, Pennsylvania. To arrest Mangione. Since then he has been detained without bail.
last month, Mangione’s lawyer Requested that his federal charges be dismissed and that the death penalty be removed as a result of public comments. Attorney General Pam Bondy. Bondi in April directed the prosecutors New York called for the death penalty, calling Thompson’s murder a “premeditated, cold-blooded murder that shocked America.”
Murder cases are usually heard in state courts, but prosecutors also charged Mangione under a federal law on murders committed with firearms as part of other “crimes of violence.” This is the only charge for which Mangione could face the death penalty, as it is not used in New York State.
Papers filed early Saturday morning argued that the charge should be dismissed because prosecutors failed to identify other crimes that would be necessary to convict him, saying the other crime alleged — stalking — is not a crime of violence.
The murder and its aftermath have captured the American imagination, sparking a wave of outrageonline vitriolWhile American health insurersrattling corporate executivesConcerned about security.
After the murder, investigators found the words “delay,” “deny” and “remove” written in permanent marker on ammunition at the scene. These words mimic the phrase used by critics of the insurance industry.
