A New York judge dropped terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, the suspected assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Judge Gregory Carro wrote, “Counts 1 and 2, charging defendant with Murder in the First Degree (in furtherance of an act of terrorism) and Murder in the Second Degree as a Crime of Terrorism, are dismissed as legally insufficient. The People presented legally sufficient evidence of all other counts, including Murder in the Second Degree (intentional).”
“The People presented sufficient evidence that the defendant murdered
Brian Thompson in a premeditated and calculated execution. That does not mean, however, that the defendant did so with terroristic intent,” the judge wrote, adding, “While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal.”
In April, prosecutors filed a notice to seek the death penalty for Mangione. The filing said that “a sentence of death is justified” and that the “United States will seek the sentence of death for this offense: Murder through Use of a Firearm, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(j), which carries a possible sentence of death.”
Mangione “presents a future danger because he expressed intent to target an entire industry, and rally political and social opposition to that industry, by engaging in an act of lethal violence,” the filing read, noting that he “took steps to evade law enforcement, flee New York City immediately after the murder, and cross state lines while armed with a privately manufactured firearm and silencer.”
