Luigi Mangione latest: Death penalty off the table, judge rules
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court, December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Friday dismissed the death-eligible counts from Luigi Mangione’s indictment, clearing the way for his federal trial to begin in October.
“Tortured and strange” though she said her conclusion may be, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled stalking is not a crime of violence and, therefore, not a predicate to make the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a capital crime.
“No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct,” Garnett wrote. However, her opinion said that the U.S. Supreme Court requires her to analyze the allegations in a way that is “totally divorced from the conduct at issue.”
Garnett said crimes of violence must, by definition, involve force and, theoretically, stalking could be committed without it.
The defense wanted the death penalty taken off the table, arguing that stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot be the predicate to make Mangione eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted of the federal charges. The defense also argued that the decision to seek the death penalty was political and circumvented the federal government’s protocols.
Mangione, who is accused of stalking and killing Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges.
With the death penalty off the table, Garnett said Mangione’s federal trial will begin with opening statements on Oct. 13. Garnett said jury selection will begin on Sept. 8.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is separately trying to convince a state judge to put Mangione on trial on July 1, before the federal case.
Garnett on Friday also declined to suppress evidence seized from Mangione’s backpack when he was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This ruling will allow prosecutors to use key evidence at trial, including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession.
Garnett said the search fell within multiple exceptions to the requirements for obtaining a search warrant, including the discovery of the weapon and the likelihood that the evidence would have been discovered inevitably.
Mangione’s lawyers had argued the backpack search was illegal.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Wall Street heliport ahead of his appearance in federal court in New York, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — The special operations soldier who was indicted this week for allegedly using classified information to make more than $400,000 betting on the capture of Nicolas Maduro appeared in a federal courtroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who made the wager on the prediction market Polymarket, will be released on a $250,000 appearance bond.
He agreed to surrender his passport, limit travel to parts of New York and North Carolina, limit drinking “in excess,” and no longer possess a firearm unless it’s part of his active military service.
Van Dyke entered the courtroom shackled at his hands and feet and only spoke briefly to acknowledge he understood the charges and penalties. He is currently being represented by a public defender.
He is set to appear in federal court in New York City on April 28.
Federal investigators said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on Polymarket just days before President Donald Trump announced Maduro’s capture.
The series of bets — which netted more than $409,000 — immediately prompted scrutiny within the world of prediction markets and resulted in a monthslong investigation about whether inside information was used to place the bets.
Van Dyke was indicted on charges that included unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
When, after placing the bets, he saw reports about unusual trading associated with the mission, Van Dyke allegedly tried to hide the evidence of the trades by attempting to delete his Polymarket account and change the email address registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account, according to the indictment.
“Rather than safeguard that information as he was obligated to do, VAN DYKE decided to use that classified information to place trades on a prediction market platform for his personal profit,” the indictment said. “VAN DYKE subsequently tried to conceal his unlawful use of classified U.S. Government information by attempting to obscure the source of his unlawful proceeds and to disguise his connection to the accounts linked to the illicit trades.”
While prediction markets are primarily regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, suspiciously-timed trades on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have sparked concerns about insider trading. In addition to the $400,000 Maduro bet, another Polymarket user made roughly $550,000 through a series of bets related to the U.S. striking Iran and the removal of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked on Thursday what he thought about about Van Dyke’s wagers, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team.”
“Pete Rose, they kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team,” Trump said. “I’ll look into it.”
Regarding concerns about federal employees making insider trading bets on the Iran conflict and other developments, Trump said “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”
“You look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is. No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff. But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”
American religious & Civil Rights leader and politician Reverend Jesse Jackson points as he speaks from a lectern at the headquarters of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), Chicago, Illinois, July 17, 1981. (Photo by Antonio Dickey/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Barack Obama reflected on the late Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “legacy of hope” on Friday, telling thousands who gathered to celebrate the late civil rights leader’s life in Chicago that “we are living in a time when it can be hard to hope.”
“I’d always be grateful for that legacy of hope,” Obama said.
“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think you think were possible,” Obama said.
“Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all,” Obama added.
“Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength; we see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards every single day, we see that and it’s hard to hope,” Obama said.
Obama joined former Presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, in delivering remarks at the House of Hope on Friday afternoon in Chicago to honor the legacy of the pioneering civil rights leader, politician and minister, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Jill Biden also attended the service, along with governors of the states of Illinois, Maryland, California and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Throughout his speech Obama characterized Jackson as a “messenger” of God, who repeatedly said, “send me,” as he faced and fought injustices thorough his life – from the Jim Crow South, to the modern civil rights movement.
“But this man Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path, his voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change,” Obama said. “How fortunate we were that Jesse Jackson answered that call, what a great debt we owe to him. May God bless, Rev. Jackson. May he rest in eternal peace.”
Friday’s public “Celebration of Life” service will be followed by a private service on Saturday morning in Chicago. The services come after thousands paid their respects to Jackson as he lay in honor at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago last week. He was also honored in his birth state of South Carolina on Monday, where he laid in state at the state house in Columbia.
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people. He traveled the world fighting economic and gender inequity. Until his last days, he fought for better healthcare, education, and peace in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and beyond,” the Jackson family said in a statement on Wednesday. “I hope everyone who joins us to honor his legacy will also continue to champion these causes. That would be the best possible tribute and celebration they could offer.”
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. changed the United States — and the world,” the Jackson family said. “We are deeply honored to know there are people from every walk of life who want to join us to pay their respects.”
During his speech Obama reflected on Jackson’s historic campaigns for president in 1984 and 1988 and the rainbow coalition that he formed, forging the path forward for the Democratic Party. “He paved the road for so many others to follow,” Obama said. “And it was because of that path that he had laid, because of his courage, his audacity, that two decades later, a young black senator from Chicago, South Side would even be taken seriously as a candidate for the presidential nomination,” Obama added.
Harris also credited Jackson with forming the “rainbow coalition,” which became a defining force for the Democratic Party.
“Jackson reminded us that the many fights for freedom are interconnected,” she said.
“As he once said, when a barrier falls for one of the locked out, it opens the doors for all, and that is what he told me, and what he taught me, and how he inspired me,” she added.
Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton, who awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, said the late reverand made him a “better president.”
“We did not always agree, but I’ll tell you one thing, he made me a better president, because he was always pushing on things, and he knew that change came from the outside in, and sometimes from the inside out,” Clinton said. “so he knew how to keep pushing and nagging and wearing you up.”
Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.
During his remarks on Friday, Biden called for Jackson’s memory to inspire Americans. “Let us be what Jesse called us to be, a margin of hope. Sometimes it’s the margin [that can] change people’s lives, to change community lives; lift up this country and light the path to being the nation Jesse always believed we can be,” he said.
Several of Jackson’s children also honored their father’s legacy during the service, reflecting on his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs and how he dedicated his career to advancing economic justice and building political power for Black Americans.
Jackson’s son Yusef Jackson, who is also President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — the civil rights organization that Jackson founded in the 90s, said on Friday that his father’s legacy will continue in the work.
“This type of work does not pass by blood. It passes by spirit,” he said. “Thus it is in his name that we have committed ourselves, that the rainbow coalition will continue.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, Tierra Cunningham and Jeana Fermi contributed to this report.
Savannah Guthrie and mother Nancy Guthrie on Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
(TUCSON, Ariz.) — ABC News has confirmed that law enforcement will imminently release an image of a potential suspect in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
Guthrie was taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday, Feb. 1, according to authorities. A Monday ransom deadline by persons claiming to be Guthrie’s abductors passed as the search for her continues.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
