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Luigi Mangione admitted to killing Brian Thompson. Why does NY still want a trial?
By
Samantha Max
Published Aug 19, 2026
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Photo by Jeenah Moon / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Aug 19, 2026
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When Luigi Mangione admitted last week to killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk in 2024, what was likely to be one of the most high-profile federal trials in recent history was called off.
Still, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that admission of guilt in federal court will not stop him from pursuing separate state charges, including second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Here’s what we know about what happens next:
State prosecutors still want to pursue the case
The same day Mangione pleaded guilty in federal court, his defense team filed a motion in New York state court asking for the charges in that case to be dismissed. But state prosecutors said they planned to fight the request.
“While federal sentencing is pending, we are prepared to litigate the defense motions,” press secretary Doug Cohen said in a statement after the plea hearing. “The Manhattan DA’s office remains committed to seeking justice for Mr. Thompson and his family.”
Thompson’s family said in a statement that the federal plea “marks an important step toward justice for Brian and for our family,” but they are still following the state proceedings and “will continue to seek the justice Brian deserves.”
Attorney Jeremy Saland, who used to work for the Manhattan DA’s office, said local police and prosecutors already put in the “sweat equity” of investigating and prosecuting the case, and it’s the DA's office's duty to seek a conviction for a murder.
“When a murder is perpetrated on our streets and justice demands prosecution and accountability, should there be a plea or a conviction, that's what they do,” he said.
The prosecution's statement that they’ll continue to pursue their case while awaiting federal sentencing suggests the office’s strategy could shift after that court hearing, depending on the length of the federal prison term Mangione receives.
Mangione argues double jeopardy
Mangione’s lawyers, on the other hand, said their client should be protected from further prosecution under New York’s “double jeopardy” law, which states “a person may not be twice prosecuted for the same offense.” They argued that even though federal and state prosecutors charged Mangione with different crimes, they were connected to the same criminal action: killing Thompson.
Mangione’s defense team essentially needs to convince a judge that the state charges he still faces should be dropped, because they are similar enough to the federal charges he already pleaded guilty to.
But Saland said the purpose of the federal stalking law Mangione admitted to is inherently different from that of the state murder charge.
“Murder, you’re clearly and very specifically trying to prevent a murder, a killing, a taking of someone’s life, whereas the stalking may include that, but it is also much broader,” he said.
When someone pleads guilty to murder, they admit that they intended to cause someone’s death. Saland noted Mangione did not specifically say he intended to kill Thompson when he pleaded guilty. Rather, he said he traveled to New York “with the intent to shoot Brian Thompson” and “understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or serious bodily injury.”
“Words matter,” Saland said. “There’s a difference. Different crimes, different harms, different goals of the state in protecting the public and protecting individuals.”
But Anna Cominsky, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at New York Law School, said she thinks the defense has a stronger argument. She said it could help that many of the facts Mangione admitted to in federal court are the same facts prosecutors would have to prove in the state case.
At his plea hearing, Mangione acknowledged that he used a 3D printer to make part of a gun and equipped it with a silencer and a magazine. He said he traveled to New York with the intent to shoot Thompson, and that he did ultimately shoot the CEO. He also said he understood that his actions would place Thompson in fear of death or serious injury, and that he knew what he was doing was illegal.
“ This is not a slam dunk for either side,” she said. “It's a very complicated, nuanced issue. But the defense definitely has some things going for them.”
Why would Mangione plead guilty?
Legal experts said there are various reasons why Mangione would want the judge overseeing his state case to throw out those charges. If Mangione’s request were successful, he would no longer face the possibility of a lengthy New York prison term on top of his federal prison sentence, Cominsky said. While Mangione did not accept a plea agreement in federal court with any promise for less prison time, the sentencing guidelines would likely lead the judge overseeing his federal case to spare him the maximum prison term, she said.
“Theoretically he will not spend the rest of his life in prison,” she said.
Saland said getting the state charges tossed would mean he wouldn’t have to serve his time in a state prison like Attica or Sing Sing, where he said the conditions could be worse than in federal prison.
“Those are scary, ugly places,” he said. “That’s not to say federal penitentiaries aren’t, but, if I had my druthers — and hopefully I never have to make that decision — federal incarceration is a heck of a lot better than the prisons that I just mentioned.”
Pleading guilty in federal court also provided Mangione with an opportunity to tell the public why he did what he did — an opportunity Saland said he wouldn’t necessarily have gotten at trial. His case has become a flashpoint for debates about the healthcare industry. During his plea hearing, Mangione said he endured years of severe pain from a broken back and “the obstacles of the health insurance system.”
“He got the forum to be able to put that out there,” Saland said.
Tagged
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public safety
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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