Luigi Mangione's Team Negotiating Plea Deal with Feds, State Case in Jeopardy

MAJOR twist in the Luigi Mangione case ... his legal team is in serious negotiations with federal prosecutors, sources tell TMZ, and it could have a dramatic impact on his fate.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... the negotiations are "real," and it involves a possible guilty plea to murder, but the twist comes with sentencing. We're told one of the "possibilities" is an open plea where sentencing is not negotiated, but left to the judge after an extensive hearing. That would allow the defense to present mitigating factors -- including Luigi's strong feels about health care and corporate greed that altered his mental state -- that could lead to a sentence more favorable than life in prison.

The implications here are dramatic. When someone is charged in both federal and state court for the same offense and the federal case resolves first, the state cannot prosecute based on double jeopardy. Paul Manafort successfully made this argument in a New York state court when he was prosecuted for fraud back in 2019.

What's more, even if -- for some reason -- the double jeopardy argument would not fly, then Luigi's lawyers could use the defense of extreme emotional disturbance without fear it would come back to haunt him in the federal case. That would effectively allow Luigi to put the health care system on trial if the state case goes forward.

Mind you, based on the current state of New York law, it would seem the state case against Luigi would disappear based on double jeopardy, if a federal plea bargain is reached.