Luigi Mangione returns to court less than a month before state trial

Luigi Mangione appeared in a New York courtroom Tuesday where plans were nearly finalized for his state murder trial next month, including the judge’s ruling that the jury of Manhattan residents will be anonymous.

Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to several state charges in connection with the December 2024 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside the New York Hilton Midtown.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Justice Gregory Carro ordered the parties to team up on crafting a jury questionnaire — a task that could prove challenging given the case’s notoriety. Jury selection is set to begin Sept. 8.

If convicted, Mangione faces up to life in prison.

It was unclear when the jury questionnaire would be finalized, but Mangione’s side told NBC News that they expect to have a proposed draft this week. The parties are expected to coordinate on a survey that will address the concerns of each side identify out potential jurors who may be biased.

Jurors who make it past the initial screening process will then face additional vetting in a process known as voir dire. Questionnaires are designed for the parties and judge to get a preliminary sense of a jury candidate’s background and beliefs.

On Tuesday, the courtroom was filled with journalists and some Mangione proponents, who were wearing green, a color that appeared to reference the Luigi character from the iconic Nintendo Super Mario games and subsequent movies.

Mangione entered the courtroom from a holding area wearing a gray suit. He glanced around the room before taking his seat next to his attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan.

Carro ruled at the start of the hearing that the jury would be anonymous, a designation that is becoming increasingly common in high-profile cases in New York.

Carro also said there would be expanded media and public access to the trial. After fielding complaints from Mangione’s defense team about potential space limitations, court administrators arranged for an overflow room.

“It has always been under consideration. They had to find the physical place, and it had to be staffed,” Carro said.

Prior to the conference, the defense and prosecution sparred over how much space would be available for members of the media and public to view the trial.

The defense accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of unfairly trying to limit the number of attendees, which they argued would also shape the type of coverage that the trial received.

Prosecutors objected to those characterizations but also raised concerns about witness exposure.

“We are particularly concerned about the possibility that a spectator in an overflow room will clandestinely record the proceedings and share any such recordings with others,” prosecutor Joel Seidemann wrote in an Aug. 10 letter.

Marc Agnifilo, one of Mangione’s lawyers, said outside the courthouse that he was glad the court arranged for extra space.

“I think it actually changed the complexion of the coverage of the trial. ... I think there should be two overflow rooms, but I’ll take one,” Agnifilo said.

Mangione’s case has garnered international headlines, with mostly female supporters who have appeared in court throughout the pretrial hearings and argue that the killing was justified.

Prosecutors allege Mangione was motivated by an animus toward the health insurance industry, but he was never a UnitedHealthcare customer. He had no connection to Thompson, a father of two from Minnesota.

Prosecutors say Mangione trailed Thompson and identified his movements in New York, where the prominent healthcare executive was attending his company’s investors conference.

Prosecutors allege that Mangione shot Thompson from behind outside the hotel, then fled the city. He was apprehended several days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a McDonald’s employee called the police.

Former Manhattan prosecutor Rebecca Roiphe told NBC News that during jury selection, prosecutors will likely want to scrutinize potential jurors’ experiences in the healthcare system to weed out those who might sympathize with Mangione.

“I think the prosecution is clearly going to want to keep off people who have some kind of ax to grind about healthcare,” Roiphe said.

Roiphe, who is a criminal law and ethics professor at New York Law School, believes the defense will seek panelists with a “healthcare-for-all mindset.”

Roiphe said attorneys will also pay close attention to jurors’ attitudes toward law enforcement and politics, even though aspects of Mangione’s case do not seem to strictly apply to a partisan viewpoint.

Mangione separately faces federal stalking-related charges in New York and has pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department was seeking the death penalty in the federal case, but that option was taken off the table earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett issued a ruling in January that effectively blocks New York federal prosecutors from pursuing a capital case.