Luigi Mangione's defense team has abruptly reversed course, dropping plans to pursue a psychiatric defense in his state trial over the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, just one day after announcing they would pursue it.
The 28-year-old's lawyers initially told Judge Gregory Carro on Wednesday they intended to claim Mangione suffered from "extreme emotional disturbance" at the time of Thompson's killing on December 4, 2024. But in a letter filed Thursday, defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the team would withdraw the notice under New York's psychiatric defense statute.
The sudden shift came as lawyers faced a Thursday deadline to provide prosecutors with evidence supporting the emotional disturbance claim. Judge Carro had stressed during Wednesday's hearing that the defense would need to establish what specific condition triggered the disturbance.
The extreme emotional disturbance defense does not allow a defendant to escape criminal liability. Instead, it functions as a mitigating factor: if accepted by a jury, it would require a conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter, which carries up to 25 years in prison, rather than murder, which can result in a life sentence. The defense would have effectively amounted to Mangione admitting he killed Thompson but arguing for reduced punishment based on his mental state at the time.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal charges. His state trial is scheduled to begin on September 8, while his federal trial on stalking charges is set for October 13. The extreme emotional disturbance defense is available only in state court, not federally, which may have influenced the decision to abandon it.
Thompson, 50, was shot as he approached a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group's annual investor conference. Surveillance video captured the masked gunman firing from behind. Police said words like "delay," "deny," and "depose" were written on the ammunition, referencing terminology associated with insurance denial practices.
Mangione was arrested five days later at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles from the shooting scene. The Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family now faces a gun and notebook prosecutors say connect him directly to the killing. A 3D-printed pistol recovered in his possession matches the murder weapon, and his notebook contains references to wanting to "whack" a health insurance executive and descriptions of the industry as a "deadly, greed fueled" cartel.
A judge previously ruled that both the weapon and notebook are admissible as evidence. The defense team's rationale for withdrawing the psychiatric defense remains unclear; they did not respond to requests for comment.
Author James Rodriguez: "Dropping the defense before the real fight starts suggests either weak evidence or strategic calculation, but either way, it signals the defense knows where this battle will be won or lost."
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