USA Death penalty demanded in case of dead insurance executive
US Attorney General Pam Bondi is calling for the death penalty for Luigi M., who has been charged with the murder of an insurance executive, if convicted. "The murder was an act of political violence", said Bondi. M. had acted deliberately and planned the crime.
01.04.2025, 18:50
SDA
"As the murder took place in public and in the vicinity of onlookers, there was possibly a great risk of other people being killed," said Bondi. She had instructed the responsible prosecutor in the federal proceedings against M. to demand the death penalty.
Days-long manhunt for the shooter
M. allegedly shot the head of the billion-dollar US health insurer United Healthcare, Brian Thompson, on a street in Manhattan. Insurance boss Thompson was shot at close range near Times Square on the morning of December 4 and died of his injuries in hospital. The crime, which was filmed by surveillance cameras, and the public manhunt made headlines around the world.
The shooter initially fled on a bicycle and then disappeared. Five days later, he was recognized and arrested in a fast food restaurant in the city of Altoona in the US state of Pennsylvania. The 26-year-old M. was then flown from Pennsylvania to New York for his trial under the highest security precautions. After the crime, there were unusually high levels of sympathy for the suspected shooter in the USA. Millions of Americans despair of their country's expensive healthcare system.
Trump is a supporter of the death penalty
US President Donald Trump is seeking to increase the use of the death penalty in federal trials. It is still permitted in the USA at federal level, in the military and in 27 states, but is no longer carried out everywhere. Under Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, executions were suspended at federal level.
At the beginning of Trump's first term in office (2017 to 2021), no executions were carried out at federal level either. There has been a de facto pause since 2003. Shortly before the end of his term in office, however, the Republican resumed executions and carried out 13 executions within a few months - more than any US president in decades.
A narrow majority of Americans still support the death penalty. However, doubts due to miscarriages of justice, discrimination and unequal legal representation are steadily eroding support.
