State Law Struck Down
New York’s legislature spent nearly two decades trying to do exactly that—repeatedly passing reinstatement bills buoyed by public support for capital punishment during an era of rising crime. But two Democratic governors—Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo—vetoed the bills every time.
But the law never produced an execution. Over the next nine years, prosecutors pursued capital cases and juries sentenced several men to death. None of the sentences were carried out.
Then, in June 2004, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled in People v. LaValle that a central piece of the statute violated the state constitution: The law mandated that if capital jurors could not reach a unanimous decision on death or life without parole, a judge would impose a sentence that included parole eligibility—a rule the high court believed could pressure jurors to vote for death out of fear that a hung jury might someday put a killer back on the street, creating an unacceptable risk of a “coercive,” “arbitrary and unreliable” sentence.
Only the state legislature, the court said, could fix the defect in the law. But after five days of public hearings in late 2004 and early 2005, a legislative committee voted against advancing a revised bill.
In 2007, the state’s Court of Appeals vacated the death sentence of John Taylor, the last man on the state’s death row, clearing it for good. And the next year, Gov. David Paterson ordered execution equipment removed from state facilities.
The capital statute technically remains in the state’s penal law, but it is unenforceable. No one has been executed in New York since 1963.
The Federal Track
Federal prosecutors answer to a different statute, the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, which allows for capital punishment in certain crimes, even if they were committed in a state that doesn’t permit executions.
It was the Justice Department’s first capital case of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Mangione’s defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo denounced Bondi’s order as “barbaric” and political, and his defense team spent months arguing that Bondi’s public statements—and her prior work at a lobbying firm that represented UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare’s parent company—had tainted the case.
Despite the defense’s argument, the death penalty ultimately collapsed on narrower grounds.
On January 30, 2026, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed the federal murder count against Mangione. It was the only death-eligible charge he had faced. She ruled that the alleged stalking offenses did not qualify as “crimes of violence” under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, a necessity for the capital charge.
Garnett acknowledged that her analysis might strike many people as “tortured and strange,” but said she had faithfully applied the law.
What Is Luigi Mangione Charged With?
That history is why the killing of a Fortune 500 executive was never a capital case in either New York or federal court.
Mangione had faced terrorism-related state murder counts, which carry a maximum sentence of life without parole in New York, but those were dismissed in September 2025, when a judge ruled the evidence legally insufficient. In his decision, Justice Gregory Carro said the “heinous” but “targeted and discrete killing of one person” did not meet the strict definition of terrorism.
Mangione initially pleaded not guilty in both his state and federal cases, but on August 14, he pleaded guilty to the two federal stalking counts. He still faces second-degree murder, weapons and forgery counts in New York.
His state trial was slated to begin on September 8, where, if he found guilty as charged, Mangione would face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s defense team asked the state court to dismiss murder and weapons charges on double jeopardy grounds, arguing that his federal conviction bars a second prosecution for the same killing. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has said it intends to fight the motion, and on August 17, 2026, Judge Gregory Carro gave the Manhattan DA’s office until October 9 to respond to the defense's double jeopardy claims. He also issued an order to cancel Mangione's September trial in the meantime.
In the federal case, Mangione pleaded guilty without a sentencing agreement in place, which leaves prosecutors free to seek the maximum penalty—and they have said they intend to, though federal sentencing guidelines recommend 24 to 30 years. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett on December 18, and faces up to life in prison.
