Attorney David Schoen said Friday that the federal prosecution in the Luigi Mangione case hinges on complex jurisdictional and statutory questions that could determine if the most serious charges survive, including those carrying the death penalty.
Mangione, 27, was accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, who was CEO of UnitedHealth Group's health insurance unit, on a sidewalk in Manhattan in December 2024. Public officials condemned the assassination, but Mangione became something of a folk hero to some critics of steep U.S. healthcare costs and insurer practices.
At the hearing before U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan, Mangione's lawyers will argue that a charge of murder with a firearm — the only one that carries the possibility of the death penalty — should be dismissed because prosecutors did not meet the legal requirements for such a charge.
Appearing on Newsmax's "Newsline," Schoen, who specializes in federal criminal defense and civil rights law, said federal criminal cases generally require an interstate commerce element.
Without that connection, crimes such as murder are typically handled at the state level, where many states independently authorize the death penalty.
"You have to have an interstate commerce element to a crime to make it a federal crime," Schoen said, noting that this threshold issue underlies much of the current litigation.
Schoen referenced parallel proceedings in New York state court, where judges previously dismissed death-eligible charges.
Prosecutors had argued the killing was connected to terrorism, a factor that would have elevated the charges. However, the court ruled that the required terrorism element was not present, removing the death penalty from the state case.
Turning to the federal case, Schoen said two primary issues were before the court. One involves an effort by the defense to disqualify Attorney General Pam Bondi based on alleged conflicts of interest and past statements. Schoen said he did not expect that argument to succeed.
"I don't think that's going to go anyplace," he said.
The more significant dispute, Schoen said, centers on defense motions to dismiss counts three and four of the indictment. Count three is particularly critical because it is the only charge that makes the case death-penalty eligible.
Schoen said that count relies on a federal statute criminalizing the use of a firearm in connection with a "crime of violence." In the Mangione case, prosecutors argue that the underlying crime of violence is stalking with intent to commit murder, which is charged in counts one and two.
The defense, however, is challenging whether that predicate offense legally qualifies as a crime of violence under federal law. Schoen said courts use what is known as the "categorical approach" when making that determination.
Under that approach, judges examine the statute rather than the specific facts of the case. If there is any plausible way the statute could be violated without involving violent force, Schoen said, it may fail to qualify as a crime of violence for purposes of the firearm charge.
"It's quite a complicated issue," Schoen said, adding that similar arguments have succeeded in other cases, including one of his own, where firearm charges tied to a conspiracy offense were dismissed.
Schoen emphasized that such motions are common in high-profile death penalty cases, where defense attorneys aggressively test every legal theory available.
"These are lawyers fighting as hard as they can," he said.
The court's ruling on the motions could determine whether federal prosecutors can continue seeking the death penalty in the Mangione case.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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