RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 12 sourcesThe trial had been scheduled to begin September 8
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Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been postponed indefinitely . The trial had been scheduled to begin Sept. 8, but Mangione’s lawyers are seeking to have the case dismissed on double jeopardy grounds after he pleaded guilty to federal charges last week.
Judge Gregory Carro issued an order Monday canceling the trial and giving the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office until Oct. 9 to respond to the defense’s claims. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Dec. 10, about a week before Mangione is due to be sentenced in the federal case.
Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty Friday in Manhattan federal court to two stalking charges and admitted to following Thompson to a UnitedHealth Group investor conference before shooting him outside a Manhattan hotel in 2024. Federal prosecutors have said they will seek a life sentence when Mangione is sentenced on Dec. 18, although federal sentencing guidelines recommend a term of 24 to 30 years.
“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione said.
Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking to have the state case thrown out on double jeopardy and due process grounds. They described him as a “pawn in parallel prosecutions" and accused state and federal prosecutors of “trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct.”
Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case, which also carries the possibility of a life sentence.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement that it would fight efforts to end the state case, in part because Mangione’s federal sentence isn’t yet known.
Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple prosecutions. A state prosecution can be barred if a federal case involving the same course of conduct or criminal transaction ends in a guilty plea or if a jury is sworn.
It will be up to Carro to decide if that applies to Mangione. However Carro rules, his decision will be subject to appeal.
Mangione pleaded guilty to federal charges that accused him of traveling across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson and using means such as a cellphone, the internet, interstate highways and staying at a hostel that serves out-of-state customers while planning and carrying out the attack.
“The full range of conduct that comprises the stalking offense is coterminous with the conduct committed as part of the murder offense,” Mangione’s lawyers wrote in their double jeopardy filing.
That he traveled from out of state "to be at the crime scene at the time of the shooting does nothing to eliminate the stalking of Mr. Thompson from the acts constituting his murder,” Mangione's lawyers wrote. “They are all part of the same criminal incident or criminal transaction.”
Bragg’s office contends that the state charges, including murder and firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal conduct. In a letter last month, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann objected to the possibility of a federal guilty plea wiping out the state case.
Any guilty plea, Seidemann wrote, “must account for the seriousness of defendant’s offenses” and for the state's interests in prosecuting Mangione, “including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the state homicide charges.”
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