The death penalty is officially off the table for accused healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione.
Manhattan federal prosecutors revealed Friday that they won’t appeal a judge’s ruling that axed capital punishment charges against the 27-year-old Ivy League graduate.
The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District wrote in a letter that it will accept Judge Margarett Garnett ‘s Jan.30 decision to toss the death-penalty-eligible murder rap, citing legal flaws.
The 27-year-old accused killer will still face life in prison at his upcoming federal trial — slated to start in September — if convicted of fatally shooting UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson in a Dec.4, 2024 targeted hit on a Midtown sidewalk.
But Mangione won’t technically be charged with murder in the federal case, and will instead face a charge of “stalking” Thompson, leading to the father-of-two’s death.
Mangione also faces life in prison at a separate murder trial in state court set for June.
The Maryland native has pleaded not guilty to Thompson’s killing.
In order to seek the death penalty, Garnett wrote, prosecutors needed to show that Mangione had killed Thompson while committing another “crime of violence.”
The feds also charged Mangione with “stalking” the healthcare insurance exec — yet stalking doesn’t meet the legal definition of a crime of violence, the judge found.
The judge acknowledged that her ruling could seem “tortured and strange” to the average person, but she stressed that it was the legally correct move, writing that “the law must be the court’s only concern.”
