Defense Attorneys Want Luigi Mangione’s Trials Pushed Back to 2027

Lawyers representing Luigi Mangione are requesting that his federal trial for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson be postponed until January 2027. The defense team argues that preparing for both state and federal trials simultaneously would violate his constitutional rights.

NEW YORK — Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione submitted a request Wednesday asking a federal judge to push back his trial for the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder until early 2027, while also planning to request a delay of his state murder case until September.

In their written request to U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, Mangione’s legal team explained that the existing timeline — with the state case scheduled for June and federal proceedings in September — would force their client “in the position of needing to prepare for two complicated and serious trials at the same time.”

The defense is asking Garnett to reschedule the federal case to January 2027, which would give them time to petition state trial judge Gregory Carro to move that proceeding from its June 8 start date to September 8. Mangione has entered not guilty pleas in both matters.

Judge Carro had previously suggested the possibility of shifting the state case to September — but only if federal attorneys challenged Garnett’s ruling that blocked them from pursuing capital punishment. Since prosecutors chose not to appeal, both the June state proceedings and September federal case remained on the calendar.

The defense team contends that maintaining the existing timeline would compromise Mangione’s constitutional protections.

They expressed particular worry that federal jury selection preparations would coincide with the state trial, hampering Mangione’s capacity to examine questionnaires completed by hundreds of prospective jurors — thereby undermining his right to take part in his defense strategy.

Consecutive trials would also deny Mangione proper legal representation, his attorneys argued, since they would need to handle federal case preparation while simultaneously representing him during the state proceedings.

“Though fierce advocates for their clients, defense counsel cannot be in two places at once,” the legal team of Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan stated in their filing.

Federal prosecutors are fighting the postponement request, according to the defense.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office handling the federal charges refused to provide comment. The Manhattan district attorney’s office overseeing the state case did not respond to requests for comment.

The 27-year-old Mangione could receive a life sentence if found guilty in either proceeding. During a February court appearance, he voiced opposition to facing dual trials, telling the judge: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”

Thompson, age 50, was fatally shot on December 4, 2024, while walking to a midtown Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealth Group was hosting its yearly investor meeting. Security footage captured a masked shooter firing at him from behind. Authorities report that the ammunition bore the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing terminology used to criticize how insurance companies dodge claim payments.

Mangione, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and comes from an affluent Maryland family, was taken into custody five days afterward when someone recognized him at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, approximately 230 miles west of Manhattan.

His legal representatives have claimed that law enforcement damaged his case by transforming his arrest into a “Marvel movie” spectacle, including having armed personnel escort him along a Manhattan pier following his flight to New York and by publicly announcing their intention to pursue the death penalty before formal charges were filed.

In January, Judge Garnett threw out a federal murder charge — murder through firearm use — that would have allowed prosecutors to seek execution, ruling it was legally defective. She explained her decision was meant to “foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” during deliberations on Mangione’s guilt.

In their recent filing, Mangione’s lawyers maintained that postponing the federal trial would create necessary separation between his state case and the start of the juror questionnaire phase that comes before federal jury selection.

Without such a delay, they argued, “Mr. Mangione’s potential federal jurors will be constantly bombarded with news reports and social media posts relating to the allegations and evidence against Mr. Mangione as they fill out juror questionnaires and in the subsequent weeks before they are empaneled in the federal case.”