Diehard Luigi Mangione fans rally outside NYC courthouse as he pleads not guilty to murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in federal death penalty case

Diehard Luigi Mangione fans protested the feds’ death penalty case against the accused murderer-turned-folk hero Friday — as he pleaded not guilty to the cold-blooded killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione, 26, stood in tan jail garb when he was asked to enter his plea in Manhattan federal court to a four-count indictment charging him with murder, stalking and a firearms offense for the shocking Dec. 4 hit on the health insurance bigwig.

“Not guilty,” he said.

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The plea kicks off a fight for Mangione’s life, as the feds have said they will seek the death penalty — much to the chagrin of roughly 20 fans flamboyantly supporting him outside.

“Luigi is a fall guy,” declared April Smith, 49, who trekked from Long Island City wearing gold eyelashes, a yellow- and red-sequined shirt and fluffy Uggs to support Mangione.

Smith said she was motivated to attend her first ever court case after hearing Mangione could be sentenced to death, if convicted.

Her father was a corrections officer at Joliet Correctional Center in Illinois, of “The Blues Brothers” and “Prison Break” fame, and told her horror stories of inmates on death row being mistreated.

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“The death penalty is inhumane,” she said. “I am hoping he will find the right people to help him out of his situation.”

A carnival atmosphere reigned outside the courthouse — though muted in comparison to the scenes at Mangione’s previous hearings — with many of his supporters wearing green, including a woman dressed like Luigi from the Nintendo games.

Stay up to date on Luigi Mangione, charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO

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• Diehard Luigi Mangione fans rally outside courthouse as he fights for his life in death penalty case
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Many protesters’ signs bore the anti-health insurance company slogan, “Deny, Delay, Depose,” which echoes a commonly used phrase to describe insurers’ aggressive tactics to avoid paying claims.

The use of the three-word slogan has skyrocketed in popularity after it was reported that the ominous message was scribbled into ammunition recovered at the Manhattan murder scene.

His Friday arraignment was Mangione’s first appearance in federal court since US Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed that she’d take the rare step of moving for capital punishment in the shocking slaying.

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In the courtroom, Mangione appeared to be in good spirits as he scribbled on a yellow legal pad in his lap. 

He ripped a note from the legal pad and handed it behind him to one of Agnifilo’s female paralegals, who smiled after reading it. 

Mangione, a Maryland native, is separately charged in Manhattan state court with murder as an act of terrorism and other charges that carry a possible life sentence without parole.

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The state case is on pace to head to trial first – for now. His attorney Karen Agnifilo indicated in court that she’ll request he face the federal jury first, given the life-and-death stakes.

“Now that the death penalty is being sought here, we will make a request that this case proceed first and not the state case,” she said.

The feds are seeking the death penalty against Mangione seemingly in part because of the cult following his arrest — which has translated to a nearly $1 million legal defense fund.

In a notice of intent to seek the death penalty filed Thursday, prosecutors cited Mangione’s alleged “intent to provoke broad-based resistance to the victim’s industry.”

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Outside the courthouse, pro-Mangione group People Over Profit parked a billboard truck that flashed images of their hero’s face, while another one supporter held a sign: “Healthcare is a human right. Lives over profit. Free Luigi.”

Breigh Marquisette, 45, of Philadelphia, held a life-size cut-out of Mangione pictured in an orange prison jumpsuit as she condemned the feds for pursuing a death penalty case against him, but not Patrick Crusius – who killed 23 people in a racist, anti-Hispanic shooting in a Texas Walmart.

“If you’re going to give the death penalty to Luigi, you need to give it to the guy who shot 23 people at Walmart because they were Hispanic,” she said.

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“You don’t murder someone over a grievance. But at the same time, our voices aren’t being heard.”

Perhaps the loudest voice wasn’t a Mangione sympathizer, however.

Conservative shock artist Scott LoBaido of Staten Island — who threw 48 slices of pizza over the fence into City Hall Park near the mayor’s office to protest the curb on coal and wood-fired ovens — wheeled an electric chair down the middle of Centre Street with a skeleton in it dressed in a Nintendo Luigi outfit. 

The skeleton held a sign that read: “F— Luigi and his jagoff followers.”

The arraignment seemingly inspired two bomb threats that were dismissed as not credible, sources said.

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One was a rambling fax to the Southern District of New York court where the hearing took place, while the other was a call focused on Mangione to the NYPD, according to the sources.

After the arraignment, Mangione fist-bumped his other attorney Marc Agnifilo.

Judge Margaret Garrett set a June 27 deadline for Mangione’s attorney to file a motion to dismiss, with the next hearing scheduled for Dec. 5. A trial date will be set sometime in 2026, she said.

New York state outlawed capital punishment in 2004. But federal prosecutors can still execute defendants — if they can convince a jury to unanimously sign off on a government-sanctioned killing.

If they did so in the Mangione case, it would be the first Manhattan federal execution in 70 years.

The last execution was in 1954, when Gerhard A. Puff went to the electric chair for killing an FBI agent. 

A year before, the married couple Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed after a sensational Manhattan federal case in which they were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.

– Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer and Joe Marino