What If Luigi Became a Martyr?

Photo via ABC News

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The Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, has requested the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old American of Italian descent accused of shooting and killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare—the largest health insurance company in the U.S.—on December 4th, 2024, in New York City. 

The Attorney General justified her decision by stating that the murder of Thompson was “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” But we know there’s much more behind this story. 

Luigi Mangione, a young man from a middle-class family and a top graduate of the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, did not act impulsively. On this, the prosecution is absolutely right: it was a premeditated act. But it was committed by someone who, at first glance, had no reason to destroy his own life forever. Mangione wanted to send a message, and he chose to do it in the most dramatic and brutal way possible. 

Mangione’s goal was to shine a spotlight on the privatized American insurance landscape—an extremely cynical and cruel structure that contributes to the many deep cracks in the U.S. healthcare system. The U. S. spends nearly twice as much on healthcare as the average OECD country, accounting for 17.8% of its GDP in 2021. Despite this, the U.S. ranks last in four out of five measures of health outcomes, with a life expectancy three years shorter than the OECD average. 

In the days following the murder, news reports began to emerge that exposed some of the inhumane practices used by United Healthcare. One of the most shocking revelations was that the company employed AI to automatically deny reimbursement requests for medical expenses—without any real human evaluation. 

These findings triggered a wave of protests across America. People took to the streets, voicing their exhaustion with a system that enriches insurance companies at the expense of the most vulnerable. Many began to see Mangione as the symbol of this broader fight, a figure who dared to act where others had only spoken. 

Today, Luigi Mangione sits in jail awaiting trial, with the looming possibility of receiving the death penalty—a punishment that Donald Trump has brought back into the federal justice system after efforts to dismantle it during Joe Biden’s presidency. 

But what would happen if Mangione were indeed executed by the state? 

The risk for the current administration is that such a decision could backfire—badly. In essence, it may turn Mangione into a martyr. Certainly, he would be remembered not simply as a murderer, but as a decent young man who decided to sacrifice his life—and that of Brian Thompson—for a higher cause: to stand against a rotten and corrupt healthcare system that is slowly crushing Americans. 

We can’t predict the scale or intensity of the protests that would follow his execution, nor whether they would lead to real systemic reform. But one thing is certain: Luigi Mangione’s death would be a huge risk to the maintenance of the status quo.

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This article was edited by Mia Kirch and Irene Hao.