Federal Death Penalty Cases

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett reversed an earlier decision and ordered an evidentiary hearing into whether police lawfully seized and searched Luigi Mangione’s backpack at an Altoona McDonald’s, saying the parties’ arguments and the “seriousness of the charges” warranted testimony from an Altoona officer about the department’s procedures for securing and inventorying arrestees’ property. The hearing comes as Mangione’s lawyers press a bid to block the DOJ from seeking the death penalty—citing prejudicial publicity and alleged conflicts involving Attorney General Pam Bondi—while prosecutors maintain the search was a safety check and the evidence would have been inevitably discovered; Garnett said a federal trial could be pushed to Dec. 2026–Jan. 2027 if death is sought, or occur as early as October if not, with the state murder case expected to proceed first.