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”.

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.

A lawyer for Mr Mangione called the decision “barbaric”, accused the government of “defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry”, and said Mr Mangione was caught in a tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors.

“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi,” said Karen Friedman Agnifilo in a statement.

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    • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      More like political ambition. I’ll never understand a country that elects its prosecutors. Madness.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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      Yeah I’m also struggling to see the logic in this.
      The dude is already sort of a folk hero. If you kill him you will absolutely be creating a martyr. It’s going to be one of those things that might not make a big impact right away, but the worse shit gets for rank and file Americans the more they will remember Luigi. And that’s when you get copycats…

    • spector@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Luigi hasn’t really sparked much more than social media posts. The powers that be know they have us sedated.

      • deeferg@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Yeah I’m going to have to see a lot more out of Americans to actually feel like Luigi made a change.