NEW YORK — The Justice Department was barred from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in a Friday ruling by a Manhattan federal court judge.

​Judge Margaret Garnett granted Mangione’s motion to dismiss the capital offense of murder through the use of a firearm and a related gun charge. The decision was a defeat for Trump’s Justice Department, after Attorney General Pam Bondi had vowed to seek the steepest form of punishment for “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

The Maryland man is tentatively set to proceed to trial charged with causing the health care executive’s death under two federal stalking laws. At a hearing later Friday, Garnett said jury selection would begin on Sept. 8 and opening statements by October.

In a separate ruling, Garnett ruled against Mangione in his bid to suppress the contents of his backpack recovered by Pennsylvania police officers during his arrest, including a .9mm pistol that prosecutors say was used to kill Thompson in Midtown on Dec. 4, 2024, and an alleged “manifesto” expressing disdain for the healthcare industry.

The judge’s decision relied on convoluted Supreme Court precedent governing the application of the death penalty-eligible offense Mangione faced, an analysis she conceded many may view as “strange.”

For the death penalty count to stand, Garnett said the law required the other charges in the indictment — the stalking offenses — to be so-called “crimes of violence,” which involve the use of force. Stalking crimes don’t necessarily involve force, she noted.

“This inquiry does not ask whether the particular defendant used force or violence in committing the specific crime he is charged with. Indeed, such an inquiry is expressly precluded, and the real-life facts of a particular case must be ignored,” the judge wrote.

Writing that she would be remiss not to note the “absurdity” of the legal inquiry, Garnett said of the allegations, “No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct.”

She conceded her analysis would likely strike laymen and lawyers as “strange.”

“The analysis contained in the balance of this opinion may strike the average person — and indeed many lawyers and judges — as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law,” Garnett said.

“But it represents the court’s committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case.”

Later in court on Friday, lawyers for the DOJ declined to say whether they’d appeal and told Garnett they were ready for trial regardless.

Mangione wore beige prison clothing to the hearing and spoke animatedly with his defense team. He has pleaded not guilty in the case as well as to state-level charges being tried by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

Prosecutors on Bragg’s case earlier this week urged the presiding judge to schedule the trial to begin in July, before the federal case makes it before a jury, arguing local authorities first investigated and charged Mangione and should get to try him first. Mangione’s lawyers have said they will oppose the request as they need to prepare for the federal case.

Garnett said she intended to proceed “as though this case is the only case” unless the DA or one of the parties asked her to do something different. If the DOJ decides to appeal her Friday rulings, she said the case would be put on hold.

Outside the courthouse, Mangione’s attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said his team was grateful to the judge and to his fans, a group of whom lined up outside in frigid temperatures to get a seat in the courtroom.

“All the people who come out and stand here in the cold and the people who can’t come here, the supporters: we get your letters, we get your emails, and we really appreciate all the support,” Agnifilo said.

“We’re all very relieved.”

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