The man accused of shooting a US healthcare executive dead in a street has appeared in a New York courtroom, as a judge ruled the murder trial will be heard by an anonymous jury.
At the hearing on Tuesday, Justice Gregory Carro ordered lawyers to draw up a questionnaire to choose jurors for the murder trial of Luigi Mangione.
Mangione on Tuesday. Pic: AP© Associated Press
Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to several state charges in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024 outside a Manhattan hotel.
Mangione and his legal team in a courtroom sketch. Pic: Reuters© Reuters
Jury selection, which begins on 8 September, is expected to be challenging given the high-profile nature of the trial.
The trial is expected to last six weeks.
If convicted, Mangione faces up to life in prison.
Though jurors are not normally anonymous in US criminal trials, judges are increasingly choosing to shield jurors’ identities from the public in high profile cases out of concern they may be subject to harassment or intimidation.
Pic: Reuters© Reuters
Mangione wore a grey suit in court on Tuesday and glanced around the room before he took his seat next to his lawyers.
The courtroom was filled with journalists and some Mangione supporters, wearing green, in an apparent reference the Luigi character from the iconic Nintendo Super Mario games.
The shooting was condemned by many but seen by others as emblematic of many Americans’ frustration with health insurance industry practices and attracted intense publicity.
Justice Carro ruled that an overflow area would be made available for the press and the public to witness the trial if the main courtroom reaches capacity.
Mangione’s defence team had accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of trying to limit the number of attendees and shape the coverage the case received.
Prosecutors rejected this criticism and expressed concern about juror exposure.
It was unclear when the jury questionnaire would be finalised, but Mangione’s side told Sky’s US broadcasting partner NBC News they expect to have a proposed draft this week.
Former Manhattan prosecutor Rebecca Roiphe said prosecutors are likely to want to scrutinise potential jurors’ experiences in the healthcare system to weed out those who might sympathise with Mangione.
“I think the prosecution is clearly going to want to keep off people who have some kind of axe to grind about healthcare,” she told NBC.
Prosecutors said they can prove Mangione’s guilt with hundreds of hours of surveillance video, fingerprints, DNA, a phone, a gun with matching ballistics and a notebook in which Mangione allegedly wrote of hating insurers and wanting to kill.
Mangione’s lawyers have revealed almost nothing about their potential trial strategy.
However, a July court filing indicated they might argue Mangione lost control due to an extreme mental health breakdown.
They have not conceded he was the gunman.
Graphic footage of the killing and a five-day manhunt for a suspect transformed the case into a media sensation, before Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania.
Mangione has separately also pleaded not guilty to stalking charges in a federal case, which is scheduled to begin in January.
