US prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Tuesday that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek the penalty for the “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination”.
Mr Thompson was shot dead outside a hotel in New York on 4 December. Police arrested Mr Mangione, 26, weeks later in Pennsylvania after a nationwide manhunt.
He has pleaded not guilty to state charges, and has yet to enter a plea for separate federal charges. He is currently awaiting trial in a New York federal prison.
In the press release, Bondi said Mr Thompson’s murder “was an act of political violence” and that it “may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons” nearby.
Investigators say Mr Mangione was motivated to kill Mr Thompson, 50, because of anger with US healthcare insurance companies.
Mr Mangione is facing 11 state criminal counts in New York, including first-degree murder and murder as a crime of terrorism.
If convicted of all the counts, he would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Federal prosecutors have also separately charged Mr Mangione for using a firearm to commit murder and interstate stalking resulting in death. These charges make him eligible for the death penalty.
He has yet to enter a plea on those charges.
Prosecutors have said the federal and state cases will move forward parallel with one another.
