Luigi Mangione's attorneys call attempt at death penalty in CEO's killing a 'political stunt'

Attorneys for the man accused of killing a health insurance CEO are trying to get the death penalty off the table, calling a directive to seek capital punishment “a political stunt.”

Attorneys for the man accused of killing a health insurance CEO are trying to get the death penalty off the table, calling a directive to seek capital punishment “a political stunt.”

Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with murder in the December assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, filed a motion seeking to block the death penalty Friday.

“The stakes could not be higher. The United States government intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote in the motion filed in Manhattan.

They cited Attorney General Pamela Bondi’s comments when she directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty. When she announced her instructions, she said prosecutors would work to “carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

Mangione is accused of killing Thompson, CEO of the country’s largest private health insurer, in an ambush shooting on a Midtown Manhattan street early Dec. 4.