A New York judge on Tuesday dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, accused of killing United Healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, but upheld the state's second-degree murder charges.
In a written decision, Judge Gregory Carro said that although there is no doubt that the killing was not an ordinary street crime, New York law doesn’t consider something terrorism simply because it was motivated by ideology.
“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus towards UHC, and the healthcare industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population’, and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Mr Carro wrote.
Prosecutors said after the hearing that they respected the court’s decision “and will proceed on the remaining nine counts”.
The judge scheduled pretrial hearings in the case for December 1, days before Mr Mangione is due in court in the federal case against him.
The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate has divided opinion and drawn a cult following, becoming a symbol for American frustrations with the health insurance industry.
Supporters of Mr Mangione took up three rows in the courtroom gallery. Outside, some who gathered across the street from the court building cheered and clapped as news of the dropped terrorism charges spread.
Mr Mangione earlier pleaded not guilty to several counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, in the December 4, 2024, killing. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Mr Thompson from behind as he arrived for an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown.
Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mr Mangione was arrested five days later after he was spotted eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 370km west of New York City.
His lawyers argued that the New York case and a parallel federal death penalty prosecution amounted to double jeopardy. But Mr Carro rejected that argument, saying it would be premature to make such a determination.
The Manhattan district attorney's office said there are no double jeopardy issues because neither of Mr Mangione’s cases has gone to trial and because the state and federal prosecutions involve different legal theories.
The second-degree murder charge carries a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The federal charges allege that Mr Mangione stalked Mr Thompson and do not involve terrorism allegations.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”.
The Manhattan district attorney's office quoted extensively from Mr Mangione’s handwritten diary in a court filing seeking to uphold his state murder charges. It highlighted his desire to kill an insurance industry leader and Mr Mangione's admiration for Ted Kaczynski, the late terrorist known as the Unabomber.
In the writings, prosecutors said, Mr Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed-fuelled health insurance cartel”. They also cited a confession they say he wrote “To the Feds,” in which he wrote that “it had to be done.”
Mr Mangione’s “intentions were obvious from his acts, but his writings serve to make those intentions explicit”, prosecutors said in the June filing. The writings, which they sometimes described as a manifesto, “convey one clear message: that the murder of Brian Thompson was intended to bring about revolutionary change to the healthcare industry”.
