By MICHAEL R. SISAK

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday they won’t appeal a judge’s ruling that bars them from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

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In a letter, Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley told Judge Margaret Garnett that the government will not ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse her decision, clearing the way for a trial beginning in September. His state murder trial is set to start in June.

Garnett last month dismissed a federal murder charge — murder through use of a firearm — that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding it legally flawed.

She wrote that she did so to “foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” when it weighs whether to convict Mangione in the December 2024 killing in Manhattan.

The judge, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden, also threw out a gun charge but left in place stalking charges that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.

To seek the death penalty, prosecutors needed to show that Mangione killed Thompson while committing another “crime of violence.” Stalking doesn’t fit that definition, Garnett wrote in a 39-page opinion, citing case law and legal precedents.

The ruling disrupted the Trump administration’s bid to see Mangione executed for what U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” It was the first capital case brought by the Justice Department in President Donald Trump’s second term.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty in the federal and state cases. The state charges also carry the possibility of life in prison. At a recent court hearing, he spoke out against the prospect of back-to-back trials, telling a judge: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”

Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later after he was spotted eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

His lawyers have argued that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his arrest into a “Marvel movie” spectacle, including by having armed officers parade him up Manhattan pier after he was flown to New York, and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed even before he was formally indicted.

Jury selection in Mangione’s federal case is scheduled for Sept. 8, followed by opening statements and testimony on Oct. 13. His state trial is scheduled to begin June 8, but the judge in that case, Gregory Carro, said it could have been pushed back until Sept. 8 if federal prosecutors appealed the death penalty ruling.

In her ruling, Garnett acknowledged that the decision “may strike the average person — and indeed many lawyers and judges — as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law.”

But, she said, it reflected her “committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case. The law must be the Court’s only concern.”

By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two transgender men are suing Kansas over a new law that invalidated their driver’s licenses and about 1,700 others for reflecting people’s gender identities and not their sex assigned at birth, arguing that the measure is “dehumanizing.”

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The men filed their case Thursday, the same day the law took effect, and argue that it violates rights to privacy, personal autonomy and due legal process guaranteed by the Kansas Constitution. The men also are challenging the law’s tough, new enforcement provisions for the state’s 3-year-old policy of barring transgender people from using public restrooms or other single-sex facilities associated with their gender identities.

The men want to block the law, which also invalidated roughly 1,800 transgender people’s birth certificates. They filed their case in district court in Douglas County, where they live, which is home to the main University of Kansas campus and is a liberal bastion in a red-leaning state.

“The Kansas Constitution prohibits the Kansas Legislature’s targeting of transgender individuals for this discriminatory and dehumanizing treatment,” the lawsuit says.

The state Supreme Court declared in 2019 that the Kansas Bill of Rights confers and protects a right to bodily autonomy — a decision that protected abortion rights.

Small transgender and LGBTQ rights flags sit on the desks of Kansas state Reps. Tobias Schlingensiepen, right, D-Topeka, and Kirk Haskins, left, also D-Topeka, in the Kansas House chamber, protesting a new law that will prevent transgender people from changing their driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect their gender identities and nullify past changes, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

The new law was enacted last week when Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the Legislature, overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. The judge handling the lawsuit, James McCabria, was appointed to the bench in 2014 by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, and Douglas County residents have voted three times since to keep him on the bench.

A 2023 state law, also enacted over Kelly’s veto, defined male and female by a person’s “biological reproductive system” at birth. The Kansas Supreme Court hasn’t yet reviewed it.

This year’s law calls for stiff fines for cities, counties, public schools and state agencies that don’t restrict transgender people’s use of facilities, as well as fines and criminal prosecutions for transgender people who violate it. People also can sue trans individuals over alleged violations.

Republican legislators argued that the new law will protect girls and women and often described transgender women and girls as male.

Kansas State Reps. Susan Humphries, left, R-Wichita; Bob Lewis, center, R-Garden City, and Shannon Francis, right, R-Liberal, confer during a House debate on a measure to prevent transgender people from changing their driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect their gender identities and invalidate any past changes made for them, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

“Kansans expect clarity, not confusion,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said after the law was enacted. “They expect leadership, not surrender to radical activists.”

The law bars any “sex” listing on driver’s licenses and birth certificates other than the one assigned at birth and invalidates existing records that don’t comply. The state has started notifying transgender people by mail that their licenses are invalid and they must get new ones immediately.

At least eight other states don’t allow transgender people to change one or both documents, but only Kansas has invalidated documents that were previously changed.

The two men suing over the new law are from Lawrence, about 40 miles west of Kansas City, and represented by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys. They’re identified as Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe, saying they fear discrimination, harassment and violence if they don’t remain anonymous.

By LEANNE ITALIE

NEW YORK (AP) — Neil Sedaka, the hit-making singer-songwriter whose boyish soprano and bright melodies made him a top act in the early years of rock ‘n’ roll and led to a second run of success in the 1970s, has died.

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Sedaka, whose hits included “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Laugher in the Rain,” died Friday at age 86.

“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” his family said in a statement. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”

No other details of his death were immediately available.

A key member of the Brill Building songwriting factory, Sedaka teamed with lyricist and boyhood neighbor Howard Greenfield on songs that reflected the teen innocence of the post-Elvis/pre-Beatles era of the late 1950s-early 1960s, including “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Calendar Girl” and “Oh! Carol,” a lament for his high school sweetheart, Carole King.

After a long dry spell, he reemerged with such smashes as “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood.” The Captain & Tennille’s cover of his “Love Will Keep Us Together” was a chart-topper in 1975.

The Frost have placed star forward Kendall Coyne Schofield on long-term injured reserve with an upper body injury she sustained during Team USA’s gold medal run at the Olympics this month. The move is retroactive to Feb. 19.

In a corresponding move, the Frost activated forward Élizabeth Giguère from the team’s Reserve Player list and signed her to a PWHL Standard Player Agreement. She will be available Sunday when the Frost resume their PWHL schedule with a noon CST puck drop in Montreal.

Coyne Schofield, one of six Frost players to win gold in Milan, leads the Frost in goals and points this season.

“We are fully committed to supporting Kendall throughout her recovery, and our medical team will be working diligently to help her prepare for her return to the ice,” Frost general manager Melissa Caruso said in a statement. “Fortunately, Élizabeth has been training with us since the start of the season, and her skill and experience will be a tremendous asset to our lineup in Kendall’s absence.”

Giguère, who played her last collegiate season at Minnesota Duluth, was a member of the New York Sirens for two seasons and tallied five goals and eight points in 53 games before joining the Frost as a free agent. She won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award in 2020 and finished her five-year NCAA career sixth in all-time scoring with 295 points in 177 games.

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