Luigi Mangione wants to delay his federal trial until 2027

MANHATTAN (CN) — Luigi Mangione on Wednesday asked a federal judge to push his trial to early next year so his legal team could focus on his state murder case, currently set to go to trial this summer.

In a three-page filing, Mangione argues that the current schedule of the parallel cases — in which the state trial would start on June 8 and the federal trial would start on Sept. 8 — would “not be possible” for him and his legal team to accommodate and would violate his due process rights.

“As a result of these competing schedules, Mr. Mangione is now in the position of needing to prepare for two complicated and serious trials at the same time,” Mangione claims. “This scenario violates several of Mr. Mangione’s constitutional rights.”

Mangione, who is accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024, is facing dueling prosecutions for the incident in New York Supreme Court and the Southern District of New York.

While the trials themselves aren’t set to run concurrently, Mangione’s claims pretrial obligations for the federal case will interfere with defending his state charges. For instance, he points to the fact that he and his lawyers will have to review 800 federal jury questionnaires during the week of June 29, an “impossible position” for Mangione, who will likely still be in the midst of the state trial for second-degree murder.

“Every trial day, Mr. Mangione would be taken to court for trial and returned to [the Metropolitan Detention Center] later that night. By the time Mr. Mangione returned to the MDC, it would be too late for a legal visit for counsel and Mr. Mangione to review the completed juror questionnaires,” he argues. “On nontrial days, counsel and Mr. Mangione would be preparing for trial and would not be able to spend the required hours to review 800 juror questionnaires.”

These logistical issues would result in Mangione not being able to “assist counsel in determining whether to challenge potential jurors for cause — as he is entitled to.”

Mangione also argues that the “unrelenting and unparalleled” media reporting of his state trial will likely taint the federal jury selection, with both processes happening simultaneously.

He’s requesting to delay federal jury selection until January 2027, which he also hopes would prompt the state judge to push that trial to September; New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro previously indicated that he’d be willing to do that if the federal trial gets kicked to next year.

“This proposed schedule would allow sufficient time between the state and federal trials to address the constitutional concerns noted above, while also providing counsel additional time to gather all necessary information and adequately prepare for the state trial,” Mangione argues.

According to Wednesday’s filing, the government objects to delaying Mangione’s trial and will respond to the request in writing.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, the Joe Biden appointee overseeing Mangione’s federal case, set the September start date for jury selection earlier this year. The trial’s opening is slated to take place in October.

But Carro appeared blindsided by this, and accused the government in February of “reneg[ging] on its agreement to let the state, which has done most of the work in this case, go first.” He set the ambitious June state trial date to leapfrog federal prosecutors, over objections from Mangione’s lawyers, who insisted they will not be ready for trial so soon.

Mangione, too, verbally protested Carro’s decision, loudly telling the courtroom gallery that “it’s double jeopardy by any commonsense judgment” at the end of a conference.

The 27-year-old Maryland native faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on his federal stalking charges. He faces 25 years to life in his state case, with a top charge of second-degree murder. Mangione initially faced the death penalty, but Garnett precluded the government from seeking capital punishment in January after she found it was unlawfully predicated on his stalking counts.

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