Luigi Mangione, the main suspect in the murder case of the CEO of United Healthcare, pleaded “not guilty” to state charges of murder and murder as an act of terrorism. Handcuffed and dressed in civilian clothes, wearing khaki pants and a sweater, Mangione visited the Manhattan court this Monday, after being extradited from Pennsylvania last week.
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Mangione was flanked by his lawyer, Karen Agnifilo, and there didn't seem to be any family members in the Manhattan Court where the hearing was presided over by Judge Gregory Carro.
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What comes next in the case of Luigi Mangione?
The state case will continue in parallel with the charges already filed at the federal level against the suspect in the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of the health insurance company, on the streets of Manhattan last December 4th.
For federal charges, one can be sentenced to the death penalty if found guilty, while the maximum sentence for state charges is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. According to CNN, prosecutors have not indicated whether they will seek the death penalty, and the final decision would ultimately need to be approved by the US Attorney General.
On her part, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione's lawyer, expressed concerns during the hearing about her client's ability to receive a fair trial, specifically citing the presence of Mayor Eric Adams last week among dozens of heavily armed law enforcement officers when he arrived in Lower Manhattan from Pennsylvania.
"He is a young man and they are treating him like a human ping-pong ball between two conflicting jurisdictions here," she said. "They are treating him like a human spectacle."
Mangione is currently in a federal prison in Brooklyn along with other high-profile defendants, including rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried. The next court date has been set for February 21st.