A federal judge in New York has dismissed two of the four federal charges against Luigi Mangione, including the murder-through-use-of-a-firearm count that carried the possibility of the death penalty, ruling that the prosecution's legal theory was technically flawed. The decision strips federal prosecutors of their ability to seek capital punishment in the case, leaving Mangione facing two remaining federal stalking counts (maximum penalty life without parole) and nine separate New York state murder and weapons charges that also carry life but no death penalty.

The U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett issued the ruling on January 30, 2026, granting in part Mangione’s motion to dismiss. The two dropped counts were:

  • Murder through use of a firearm during a crime of violence (18 U.S.C. § 924(j)), which would have allowed prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.
  • A related firearms offense.

Garnett ruled that the government failed to establish that Mangione’s alleged stalking of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson qualified as a predicate “crime of violence” under the statute. She wrote: “The analysis contained in the balance of this opinion may strike the average person, and indeed many lawyers and judges, tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law. But it represents the Court’s committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case. The law must be the Court’s only concern.”

The remaining federal counts, two stalking charges, carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all federal and state charges.

The case stems from the December 4, 2024, shooting death of Brian Thompson, 50, outside a midtown Manhattan hotel as he headed to an investor conference. Prosecutors allege Mangione stalked Thompson for months before gunning him down in what they described as a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination tied to grievances against the private health-insurance industry.

Attorney General Pam Bondi had directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in April 2025, calling the killing a shocking act of domestic terrorism, the ruling blocks that path at the federal level. New York state abolished capital punishment in practice after its death-penalty statute was struck down in 2004, so Mangione faces no death-penalty risk in the parallel state case either.

Judge Garnett also ruled that evidence seized from Mangione’s backpack at the time of his December 9, 2024, arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania, including a ghost gun, fake IDs, a notebook detailing grievances against the health-care system, and other items, will be admissible at trial. Mangione’s lawyers had argued the search was illegal, but Garnett found it reasonable under the circumstances.

The ruling is a significant setback for federal prosecutors but does not alter the overall strength of the case against Mangione, who remains in federal custody without bail.