NEW YORK: Federal prosecutors have slapped murder charges against the accused killer of a health insurance firm CEO making him liable for the death penalty.
Luigi Mangione was produced in a federal court here on Thursday to face the charge after he was flown in from Pennsylvania where he was arrested.
Earlier he was charged by the local prosecutor with terrorism and murder under New York laws, which do not have the death penalty.
An Ivy League educated software engineer and game developer, he is accused of killing United HealthCare (UHC) CEO Brian Thompson in front of a hotel on the Avenue of Americas in Manhattan on December 4 using a 9 mm gun and silencer at least partially made with a 3D printer.
He fled the scene on an electric bicycle, took a taxi to an interstate bus station, rode the subway to a rail station, and took a train to Pennsylvania muddling his trail.
During the nationwide manhunt, a customer and staff at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognised him and called the police.
Luigi Mangione appeared in a Pennsylvania local court on Thursday morning where he agreed to be extradited to New York and was handed over to city police.
When he arrived by helicopter in Manhattan, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents took charge of him from local police and produced him in the federal court.
Under the US federal system, each state has its own laws, with some states having the death penalty, which others like New York have abolished.
There is a separate set of federal laws, which provide for the death penalty for some crimes, and federal prosecutors invoked jurisdiction saying he had traveled across states to stalk and kill Thompson.
Another feature of the federal system is that a state would have to go through an extradition process to bring a person arrested in another state.
Luigi Mangione voluntarily agreed to be taken to New York, and if he hadn’t there would have been a lengthy process for a Pennsylvania court to order his extradition. The federal case against him would run parallel to the local New York case.
Luigi Mangione’s lawyer said that the filing of federal charges was “highly unusual” and that she had been told he would be produced in a state court, but was suddenly informed about the federal court appearance.
In writings found on him, he had spoken out against healthcare companies naming UHC, and capitalism in general.
“Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming”, he wrote.
“The US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy”, corporations “have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it”, he wrote.
That appears to have hit a wellspring of animosity toward health insurance companies among a lot of Americans, touching off an outpouring of sympathy for him.
When he was produced in the Pennsylvania court, several protesters turned up with slogans supporting Luigi Mangione. He appeals to young voters between 18 and 29, 41 per cent of whom said it was acceptable or somewhat acceptable, according to a national poll by Emerson College.
Overall 17 per cent of all voters agreed with that.
Reacting to the support for him, acting federal prosecutor Edward Kim said that he carried out the attack “all in a grossly misguided attempt to broadcast Mangione’s views across the country. But this wasn’t a debate, it was murder".
The local case is likely to be tried first and the filing of the federal case appears to be a backstop if the local case jury acquits him, and also to keep the threat of death penalty hanging over him.
Luigi Mangione, who came from an affluent family and had a brilliant career, apparently was derailed by a debilitating back injury.