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Luigi Mangione seeks trial delay, saying he wants to help pick his own jury
By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 18, 2026
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By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 18, 2026
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Luigi Mangione plans to help pick his own jury at his upcoming federal trial, according to a new court filing.
Mangione is scheduled to face a trial this fall on federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown hotel in December 2024. That’s just a few months after he’s supposed to face a separate trial for the same incident around the corner in state court.
In a letter to Judge Margaret Garnett on Wednesday, Mangione’s lawyers said the schedule would require Mangione to review a trove of questionnaires — as many as 800, according to the letter — from potential jurors in the federal case while on trial in state court.
“As a practical matter, this would not be possible,” attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote.
The defense lawyer said Mangione will be in court all day and return to jail beyond the hours when he would be able to have a visit with his lawyers. Friedman Agnifilo also said Mangione won’t be allowed to look at the questionnaires by himself while in jail, because they’ll include potential jurors’ identifying information.
“Given all these practical restraints, Mr. Mangione would not be able to meaningfully review the questionnaires and would not be able to assist counsel in determining whether to challenge potential jurors for cause — as he is entitled to,” she wrote.
Mangione’s case has garnered international attention, with some condemning Thompson’s killing and others declaring Mangione a hero. Fans have flocked to Mangione's court appearances and flooded him with so much mail that his attorneys have asked them to stop sending books.
Friedman Agnifilo said holding both trials so close together could taint the federal jury pool. She said the two cases are built on “nearly identical” evidence and that potential jurors would be “bombarded with news reports and social media posts” about the state trial while filling out questionnaires and preparing to possibly serve on a jury.
“Unfortunately, the media reporting surrounding this case has been unrelenting and unparalleled (even when compared to other high-profile New York City cases),” the lawyer wrote.
Mangione’s defense team asked Garnett to postpone the federal trial until next January, after the state trial has wrapped up. Friedman Agnifilo said she hopes the state case will also be postponed until this September, rather than starting in June, when it’s currently slated to begin.
Spokespeople for the U.S. attorney’s office and the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
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new york city
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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