2020 Penn Engineering graduate Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty to federal murder charges that could result in the death penalty if he is convicted.
United States District Judge Margaret Garnett, who presided over Friday’s arraignment, told prosecutors to convey “her caution against public commentary” to the interim U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, and to pass on this message to Bondi “and any of her subordinates at Main Justice.” Mangione previously pleaded not guilty to 11 state murder and terror charges in New York.
During the April 25 arraignment, Mangione’s legal team indicated that they wanted his federal trial to proceed before his state trials, citing the Justice Department’s decision to seek the death penalty.
On April 1, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Mangione’s federal trial, calling the murder “an act of political violence” that could have posed a risk to individuals other than Thompson due to its public nature.
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America," Bondi wrote. "After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again."
Mangione was originally charged with murder through the use of a firearm in the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, alongside two counts of stalking and a separate firearms offense.
He also faces charges related to the use of false identification as well as a 3D-printed firearm in Pennsylvania, and was unable to enter a plea in Pennsylvania before he was extradited to New York.
While at Penn, Mangione was a member of Phi Kappa Psi, a University-affiliated fraternity. He suffered from mental and physical health problems, which he claimed in a social media post were exacerbated by his fraternity’s “hell week” — the final week of intense pledging ahead of initiation.
Mangione posted frequently on Reddit about his difficulty maintaining focus amid exhaustion and brain fog and attributed his decline in academic success to these issues.
“It’s absolutely brutal to have such a life-halting issue,” Mangione wrote of his brain fog in a Reddit post. “The people around you probably won’t understand your symptoms — they certainly don’t for me.”
In 2016, Mangione founded Penn’s Game Research and Development Environment, also known as UPGRADE. The club aimed to “foster creative expression and cultivate career skills for the artists, programmers, and creatives interested in game development in the Penn community” and grew to include over several dozen members.
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