Luigi Mangione could face death penalty in CEO slaying. How rare are these federal cases?

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Luigi Mangione, facing a slew of federal and state charges in the slaying of health care CEO Brian Thompson, could be sentenced to death if he's convicted of federal murder charges in what criminal justice experts say was a rare but unsurprising move to pursue the death penalty by the Justice Department this week.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday she has instructed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione, 26. He's charged in the federal case with murder using a firearm, interstate stalking and other offenses. He also faces charges in New York, where he is accused of fatally shooting Thompson in Manhattan on Dec. 4, and related charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested on Dec. 9 after a massive manhunt.

Experts told Paste BN that federal death penalty cases are relatively unusual, but they've been pursued by the DOJ during recent administrations, both Democrat and Republican, and Bondi's decision is to be expected. In Mangione's case, there are multiple factors that would put death on the table, said Barbara McQuade, a professor at Michigan Law and former federal prosecutor.

"Every case where death is sought, by definition, is kind of an outlier because it's got some aggravating factor about it," McQuade said. "I think most attorneys general who look at the death penalty factors would have found this case to be an appropriate one for seeking death, and certainly reasonable minds can disagree."

Mangione's lead defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a statement that the federal charges were brought by a "lawless Justice Department" that made a "political" decision to pursue death.

Bondi said she was carrying out President Donald Trump's pledges to "stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again." There was almost certainly some politics at play in the decision, said Evan Mandery, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of the book "A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America." However, he said it's not unexpected or concerning.

What goes into a federal death penalty case

If a murder case includes any number of certain aggravating factors, it's considered "death eligible," Mandery said. Prosecutors – in federal cases, overseen by the attorney general – have a lot of discretion about whether to pursue the death penalty. Most cases that are death eligible aren't considered for the death penalty because it's a lengthy and expensive process, Mandery said.

Mangione's case includes multiple factors that could be considered aggravating, McQuade said. She said those might include creating a grave risk of death to others by allegedly shooting on a public street or substantial premeditation of the crime. Federal investigators wrote in charging documents that he had a notebook on him when he was arrested showing he planned the attack for months.

Whether to pursue the death penalty is a decision that lies with the attorney general, but McQuade said it's ultimately up to a jury to decide first of all, if Mangione is guilty and second, if aggravating factors outweigh mitigating ones, such as his lack of a prior criminal record.

The decision to pursue death may slow down all the cases against Mangione, because his defense team will be given substantial time to prepare evidence of any mitigating factors, which could persuade a jury not to sentence him to death. McQuade said Mangione's case is unique because of how much support it's inspired for him as a "David and Goliath figure." That could make selection of an unbiased jury tougher, but not impossible, she said.

Federal death penalty cases are still rare

Federal executions are rare, Mandery said. Since 1976 when they were reinstated at the federal level, the federal government has only executed 16 people, and the majority of death sentences handed down are never carried out, he said.

Before leaving office, President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row prisoners to life in prison without parole instead. The other three were convicted of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. The DOJ during his administration did opt to pursue the death penalty against Payton Gendron, who pleaded guilty to state charges in a racist shooting rampage that left 10 dead at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022. His federal death penalty trial is pending.

There are three people still on federal death row:

• Robert Bowers, who was convicted of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh.
• Dylann Roof, convicted of the 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel, a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
• Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

When Trump took office in January, one of his first executive orders directed the attorney general to seek the death penalty where it is applicable for severe crimes and encourage states to do so.

Mangione's situation is "not surprising in the context of everything that's happening in America, but it is historically anomalous," Mandery said.