Sept. 20 (UPI) — Alleged murderer Luigi Mangione said his rights have been violated and wants the death penalty indictment against him dismissed ahead of a December hearing.
Mangione’s legal team filed a 118-page motion to dismiss the death penalty indictment against him on Saturday in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York.
His legal team said the case has received “monumental attention from the press and public as well as from politicians and law enforcement officials.”
They wrote that New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the New York Police Department and the FBI “staged an intentionally televised ‘perp walk’ where a phalanx of heavily armed agents with long guns slow-walked a heavily shackledMangione” to the federal courthouse in Manhattan ahead of his arraignment hearing in federal court on April 25.
Mangione’s legal team alleged that Attorney General Pam Bondi “rolled out” the Trump administration’s “death penalty agenda by making the Mangione case the first in which her Justice Department would seek the death penalty.”
U.S. prosecutors refused the defense team’s request to present mitigating factors because they already decided to pursue the death penalty, “based on politics, not merit,” according to Mangione’s defense attorneys.
They said federal prosecutors violated Mangione’s constitutional rights and overcharged him with murder charges related to terrorism.
The federal court on Tuesday dismissed two terrorism-related charges due to a lack of supporting evidence, and Mangione’s legal team wants the death penalty indictment dismissed.
According to his lawyers, Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights were violated by Bondi through comments she made in a news release, on social media and during an April 6 appearance on Fox News.
Bondi violated a federal secrecy mandate regarding a grand jury investigation by making prejudicial statements and staging a “perp walk” that violate Mangione’s Fifth Amendment and Eighth Amendment rights, his attorneys argue.
They also said his rights were violated by indicting the case at the same time a motion regarding grand jury prejudice was pending and despite the defense requesting that grand jurors be screened to learn is any had been exposed to Bondi’s statements.
Because he faces the death penalty, his pending trial requires a jury that is qualified to hear a death penalty case, despite what his attorneys call an unconstitutional death-eligible indictment that violates Mangione’s constitutional rights.
They also argue that the Federal Death Penalty Act lacks congressionally approved constitutional procedures.
Mangione’s legal team, led by attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, asked the federal court to dismiss the death penalty indictment against Mangione and stop federal prosecutors from prosecuting the matter as a death penalty case.
Federal prosecutors accuse Mangione, 27, of shooting and killing former UnitedHealth Group Chief Executive Officer Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in Manhattan on Dec. 4.
A grand jury indicted Mangione on a capital murder offense, which carries the death penalty under federal law, and for stalking and firearms offenses.
Mangione’s trial date is scheduled to be set during a Dec. 5 hearing in Manhattan. He has pleaded “not guilty” to all charges against him.
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