In a stunning reversal, Luigi Mangione‘s lawyers told a judge Thursday that he will no longer be asserting a psychiatric defence at his state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The retraction came just a day after Mangione’s lawyers told Judge Gregory Carro that they planned to pursue a defence involving claims that the 28-year-old Ivy League graduate was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing.
A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for Mangione’s lawyers. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the state case, declined to comment.
Mangione’s lawyers had faced a deadline Thursday to provide prosecutors with information to support the emotional disturbance claim.
In another turn, Carro rescinded his order to unseal a transcript and other material from a secret hearing on the matter on June 3, citing the defence’s decision, but by the time he ruled, copies of the transcript had already been provided to at least some members of the news media.
FILE – Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City and leading authorities on a five-day search, appears in court for a hearing, Feb. 21, 2025, in New York.
Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool, File
It contained no additional details about the emotional disturbance claim.
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If Mangione were to have gone through with the extreme emotional disturbance defence, he would have effectively been admitting that he killed Thompson, but did so because of mitigating circumstances. It wouldn’t have absolved him of responsibility, but could have led to less time in prison.
If a jury accepts the defence, it is obligated to convict a defendant of manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 25 years in prison, instead of murder, which carries a potential life sentence.
In a letter to Carro on Thursday, Mangione’s lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the defence “respectfully withdraws” its notice under New York’s psychiatric defence statute “at this time.”
Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges. His state trial is scheduled to start Sept. 8. His federal trial, which involves stalking charges, is set to begin on Oct. 13.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Friedman Agnifilo protested Carro’s decision to unseal materials related to his psychiatric defence, saying it will be “prejudicial to his defence to the exact same facts” in his federal case, where an extreme emotional disturbance defence isn’t allowed.
Luigi Mangione, suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, arrives at a heliport with members of the NYPD on December 19, 2024 in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
An emotional disturbance defence is not the same as a not guilty by reason of insanity defence, which would allow a defendant to go to a psychiatric facility instead of prison.
Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a 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, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometres) west of Manhattan.
At a hearing last month, Carro ruled that a gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Mangione to the killing can be used as evidence against him.
The gun, a 3D-printed pistol, matches the one used to kill Thompson, prosecutors said. The notebook describes wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive and rebelling against “the deadly, greed-fueled health insurance cartel.”
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