Luigi Mangione seeks live broadcast of New York murder trial

Luigi Mangione’s defense is asking a New York judge to let the public watch his state murder trial live, not just from a limited overflow room or a small press pool. The request in People v. Mangione, Ind. No. 75657-24, lands in New York County Supreme Court, Part 32, where Mangione faces second-degree murder, weapons and forgery-related counts tied to the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson.

A May 18, 2026 decision and order from Justice Gregory Carro says Thompson was shot to death outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024. The same court record says Mangione was arrested five days later, on Dec. 9, 2024, at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after employees recognized him from media coverage. Carro’s order also says a nine-millimeter gun was recovered from Mangione’s backpack, a detail that has kept the case in the center of the national true-crime conversation.

The broadcast request is broader than a simple plea for more seats. Mangione’s attorneys want live access, which would allow viewers outside the courthouse to follow the trial in real time rather than relying on reporters inside the room and whatever the court chooses to release afterward. If the judge grants that access, the case could become a model for how New York handles future headline trials. If the request is rejected, coverage is likely to remain filtered through a limited number of observers and the official record.

New York’s audio-visual coverage rules leave courtroom cameras to judicial discretion, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has noted that constitutional law does not guarantee a right to televise or broadcast a trial. Court transparency advocates, including the Fund for Modern Courts, have argued that cameras can help the public understand how the judiciary works. In a case already driven by intense attention around Thompson’s killing, that sets up a direct clash between public access and courtroom control.

For Mangione’s lawyers, live coverage offers a chance to place the case in full public view. For the court, it raises the familiar pressure of how to manage witnesses, jurors and the tempo of a murder trial that has already drawn national scrutiny. However Gregory Carro rules, the fight over cameras will shape how much of Part 32 the public is allowed to see as the case moves forward.