It appears Luigi Mangione will face the death penalty.
Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed prosecutors to seek capital punishment against Mangione, who's charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
"Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson—an innocent man and father of two young children—was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America," Bondi said in a statement. “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
The 26-year-old is facing federal and state charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Thompson, which occurred in Manhattan in December. Video of the killing went viral before Mangione was apprehended less than a week later in Altoona, Pennsylvania after an extensive manhunt.
Last month, a former high school classmate of Mangione likened him to Gossip Girl character Dan Humphrey. An investigative piece from Rolling Stone shared some more back story of Mangione’s time at Gilman, an all-boys private school in the Baltimore area, in which a classmate, given the pseudonym “James,” made the comparison.
“It was very Gossip Girl, and Luigi was kind of like Dan,” James said. “I don’t want to put words into his mouth, but I always got this feeling that he was really interested in having more of a social life than he had.”
James also said that Mangione was “the only one” among those destined for Ivy League who “you could shoot the shit with.”