Luigi Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork on Friday once again pushing for dismissal of his state-level case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson following his federal guilty plea.
Mangione pleaded guilty on 14 August to federal charges in Thompson’s grisly death outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December 2024. The shocking plea came less than a month before his state murder and weapons trial, which had been scheduled for 8 September.
Thompson’s death spurred a sprawling search for his killer. The incident simultaneously elicited an onslaught of anger against the for-profit US healthcare industry, which has long been decried for putting their bottom line ahead of patients, to the latter’s detriment.
About an hour after Mangione admitted to two federal stalking charges, his lawyers filed paperwork to dismiss his state case. They have contended that New York state’s double jeopardy laws bar him from being prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney.
Double-jeopardy protection under the US constitution does not bar state prosecution for the same crimes as a federal case, and vice-versa. However, New York state statute maintains that “a person may not be twice prosecuted for the same offense” and “a person may not be separately prosecuted for two offenses based upon the same act or criminal transaction”.
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