State Terrorism Charges Against Luigi Mangione Are Dismissed

The judge overseeing the case against Mr. Mangione said the evidence underpinning two of the most serious counts, one of which charged him with first-degree murder, was “legally insufficient.”

New York State terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, the defendant in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive last year, were dismissed on Tuesday, including a first-degree murder count that could have landed him in prison for the rest of his life.

The judge overseeing the case, Gregory Carro, said he had found the evidence behind the charges “legally insufficient.” Mr. Mangione, 27, also faces federal charges, and is still charged in New York with second-degree murder, for which he faces a sentence of 25 years to life, among nine other counts. Those cases will proceed, though no trial dates have been set.

In charging Mr. Mangione with terrorism, the Manhattan district attorney’s office seemed to acknowledge the seismic effect of a shooting that sent shock waves through American society and set off a groundswell of support for a defendant protesting the nation’s health care system. But the judge’s decision means that while Mr. Mangione may ultimately be proved a murderer, New York’s legal system will have nothing to say about the broader implications of his actions.

The decision by Justice Carro is a blow to the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. Mr. Bragg had argued that a terrorism charge was warranted because Mr. Mangione had targeted the chief executive, Brian Thompson, in the media capital of the world, Midtown Manhattan, at the beginning of a busy morning, hoping to create a spectacle that would help further his message.

Mr. Bragg described the act as “a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.”

Mr. Mangione’s lawyers, led by a former prosecutor, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, had argued that the district attorney’s office “expanded New York’s terrorism statute well beyond its legislative intent and its natural and legal definition.” Applying the statute in Mr. Mangione’s case would “trivialize and redefine” the definition of terrorism, they said.

New York law requires that prosecutors who charge a defendant with terrorism show that the person attempted to intimidate a civilian population, or influence government policy or conduct. Justice Carro said that prosecutors had failed to show that Mr. Mangione sought to do either.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg’s office, Danielle Filson, signaled that the office would not appeal.

“We respect the court’s decision and will proceed on the remaining nine counts, including murder in the second degree,” she said.

James M. McGuire, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office who also served as an appellate court judge, said on Tuesday that bringing the terrorism charges had been “an overreach” by the prosecutors. Mr. McGuire said the judge’s order was “strongly and thoroughly reasoned.”

“It would not be reversed if the D.A.’s office appealed,” he said.

The next court hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1, days before Mr. Mangione is also due in federal court.

The shooting of Mr. Thompson in December was one of a flurry of high-profile acts of violence that have swept through American public life in recent years. President Trump faced two assassination attempts during last year’s campaign, and a Democratic state legislator from Minnesota, Melissa Hortman, and her husband were killed in their home in June.

The judge’s decision to drop some of the charges against Mr. Mangione landed amid the tense national conversation that has followed last week’s fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, and increasing concern about lone gunmen apparently motivated by their internet consumption.

Mr. Mangione, with his many supporters and immediate internet fame, quickly became a symbol of that vigilante mentality even as he pleaded not guilty.

After Mr. Thompson’s killing, a manhunt stretched across states and Mr. Mangione’s arrest caught the attention of the nation. His case galvanized anger at America’s largely private health care system, and his appearances in court have attracted hundreds of supporters, some lining the hallways and others protesting outside.

Mr. Mangione has been inundated with correspondence in the federal jail in Brooklyn where he is being held, and his lawyers have created a website to provide information about his case. An online fund-raising page set up to benefit his legal defense listed donations totaling about $1.5 million as of Tuesday.

Support for Mr. Mangione was evident inside the courtroom on Tuesday. One spectator wore a shirt from a Brooklyn pizza spot called Luigi’s; another, a shirt that said “FREE LUIGI.”

Mr. Mangione is facing prosecution in two states and in three courts. The federal charges against him include an accusation for which prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty. He also faces charges in Pennsylvania, where he was caught.

While some states define first-degree murder as a premeditated killing, New York requires an additional aggravating circumstance, one of which is terrorism. Others include torture and killing a witness or law officer.

Prosecutors had also charged Mr. Mangione with a second-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, one of the counts that was dropped, and another count of second-degree murder. He faces weapons charges as well.

If Mr. Mangione had been convicted on the highest state charges, he would have faced a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Terrorism is a fraught term in the legal context. Prosecutors have used the state’s terrorism laws infrequently and judges have been skeptical when they have been applied.

While the prosecutors based several arguments about terroristic intent on Mr. Mangione’s writings, Justice Carro said that Mr. Mangione’s words seemed to belie those arguments.

Mr. Mangione himself explained that his goal was to spread a “message” and “win public support” about “everything wrong with our health system,” a goal that Justice Carro found fell outside the bounds of what the law required. Mr. Mangione even contrasted himself with Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who he said was a “terrorist, the worst thing a person can be.”

Justice Carro acknowledged that Mr. Mangione’s own characterization of his conduct did not necessarily settle the issue, but wrote “where there is no other evidence of terroristic intent, the writings fail to supply that evidence.”

Mr. Thompson, 50, was walking into a Hilton hotel on West 54th Street, to prepare for a UnitedHealthcare investors’ day gathering, on Dec. 4 when he was shot and killed. Prosecutors said Mr. Mangione had arrived outside the hotel about an hour earlier and had waited until Mr. Thompson walked to the hotel’s entrance. Mr. Mangione then approached the executive from behind, raised a 3-D-printed 9-millimeter handgun fitted with a suppressor and shot him, prosecutors said.

The police launched a citywide manhunt for the gunman, who fled on what they said was an electric bicycle. Investigators released surveillance pictures of the suspect, including one of him smiling, taken at the front desk of a hostel on the Upper West Side where the police said he had stayed.

The authorities also traced the gunman as he moved from the scene of the killing to a bus terminal and then to the 190th Street Station in Washington Heights, where the police said he took an A train downtown to Pennsylvania Station.

Days later, Mr. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., while eating hash browns and looking at his laptop. A fellow customer remarked to a friend that Mr. Mangione resembled the person in photos the police had released. An employee who overheard called the police.

The police said Mr. Mangione had been found with a handgun, ammunition, fake identification cards and what they said was a 262-word handwritten manifesto in which he appeared to take responsibility for the killing.

New York’s terrorism laws were passed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, as the nation reeled from the worst such attacks in its history. The first person convicted under the laws was Edgar Morales, a gang member charged in a 2002 shooting that killed a 10-year-old girl. In 2012, the State Court of Appeals overturned that conviction, saying gang activity was not an act of terror.

More recently, Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born cleric, was convicted in Manhattan last year of supporting terrorism after prosecutors portrayed him as a jihadist who had supported ISIS.

And in Buffalo, Payton Gendron, a white man who killed 10 Black people in a racist massacre at a supermarket in May 2022, became the first person in the state to be convicted of domestic terrorism motivated by hate, which carries a penalty of life imprisonment without parole.

Mr. Mangione has now avoided a similar fate. His supporters had gathered outside the courthouse for days before Tuesday’s hearing, some sleeping in tents, and dozens were amassed outside by the time the hearing began. When they heard of the judge’s decision they let out a cheer.

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