New York: A judge on Tuesday dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione in New York state’s case over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, but he kept the state’s second-degree murder charges against him.
In a written decision, Judge Gregory Carro said that although there is no doubt that the killing was not an ordinary street crime, New York law doesn’t consider something terrorism simply because it was motivated by ideology.
“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Carro wrote.
The judge scheduled pretrial hearings in the case for December 1, which is