A state court judge in New York set a July 8 trial date in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Friday, ending a nearly yearlong battle over who — federal or state prosecutors — will be first to try the accused killer, Luigi Mangione.
The short, contentious hearing ended with Mangione shouting to a courtroom audience of press and admirers about “double jeopardy” as he was led back to jail.
“It’s the same trial twice,” he said as he was escorted out of the courtroom in a jail uniform and handcuffs. “One plus one equals two. Double jeopardy by any common sense definition.”
The decision was a loss for his defense lawyers, who had urged that Mangione’s state murder trial be held some time after his federal fatal stalking trial. That federal trial will now go second, with jury selection set for September 8 and opening statements for October 13.
“The defense will not be ready on July 8,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo told the judge, during the hearing’s most heated moment.
“Be ready!” New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro answered angrily.
Friedman Agnifilo told the judge that her team, which includes her husband, Marc Agnifilo, has been extremely busy winning victories for their client. In September, she said, the team convinced Carro to drop the top charge in the state indictment, murder as an act of terrorism. Last week, she said, Mangione’s federal judge tossed that indictment’s top two counts, removing the risk of the death penalty.
But as she started to tell Carro, “we haven’t been twiddling our thumbs,” the judge cut her off.
“Great,” he interrupted, his voice impatient. “You’ve done a great job. So be ready on July 8.”
Who gets to try Mangione first — New York or the feds — was a thorny question that was fought over for nearly a year in neighboring courthouses in lower Manhattan. And it’s a battle that’s all about double jeopardy.
Mangione’s defense lawyers accuse lead state prosecutor Joel Seidemann of pushing to go first, before the feds, because going second would violate New York case law against double jeopardy — the state’s restriction on trying someone twice for the same crime.
Seidemann “does not want his case to be double-jeopardied out because he did all that work,” Friedman Agnifilo told the judge in court.
Seidemann snapped back that the defense is seeking to deprive the state of New York from prosecuting “a murder that happened in Midtown Manhattan, on our streets, to a guest in our city.”
“All I can say is double jeopardy is something that was meant to protect people and they’re using it as a weapon,” Agnifilo Friedman said as she left the courthouse.
“This is a tug of war between two prosecutorial offices,” she added — suggesting that the war, lost moments earlier by Mangione, may not be over.
Mangione, who is charged in both indictments with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The father of two from Minnesota was ambushed from behind as he entered a Midtown Manhattan hotel to deliver remarks at an annual investor conference.
Mangione has been held without bail since his arrest on December 9, 2024 following a five-day manhunt.
He remains at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where last week a man was arrested on charges that he had impersonated an FBI agent in a botched effort to free an inmate — Mangione, according to a law enforcement source
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