Luigi Mangione's lawyer opposes death penalty for man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO

The lawyer for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing a UnitedHealthcare executive on a Manhattan sidewalk last year, wants to block the federal government from bringing the death penalty against her client, saying Attorney General Pam Bondi has broken with protocol of past administrations for a "political stunt."

“[Mangione] seeks court intervention because the Attorney General has explicitly stated that she has ordered the death penalty to 'carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,' " Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote in a brief filed Friday afternoon, quoting Bondi.

"The United States government intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt," the defense lawyer wrote.

She said that she asked for three months to prepare a legal brief traditionally submitted before the government determines to bring a capital punishment case. But instead, the defense lawyer said, federal prosecutors opted to play for headlines without giving her sufficient time to make her arguments.

On April 1, Bondi issued a public statement and later posted an Instagram message announcing that federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Mangione.

"Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America," the attorney general said in the statement, adding that seeking capital punishment would "help carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again."

The defense lawyer also took issue with the fact that Bondi went on TV, making the point that Mangione is accused of killing a CEO.

"Counsel is aware of no provision in the death penalty statute or in the Department of Justice’s death penalty protocol that allows for consideration of the social, economic or professional status of an alleged homicide victim in determining whether to seek the death penalty," Friedman Agnifilo wrote in her brief.

Mangione, 26, the son of a prominent Maryland family and a University of Pennsylvania graduate, has been charged in Manhattan federal court with the stalking and killing of Brian Thompson, a health care CEO and married father of two.

Prosecutors charged that Mangione traveled to New York City and carefully plotted an assassination of the executive on Dec. 4 over a grudge he held against the health insurance industry.

He fled the city and was on the run for nearly a week until a customer spotted him in an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s. Police said they found a gun, silencer and notebook full of anti-health insurance screeds in Mangione’s book bag.

Since his capture, he’s been charged in Pennsylvania, New York state Supreme Court and Manhattan federal court.

The U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.