In a reversal, Luigi Mangione’s lawyers told a judge Thursday that he will no longer pursue a psychiatric defense in his state murder trial over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The decision came just a day after his legal team said they intended to argue that the 28-year-old Ivy League graduate was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing.
A spokesperson for Mangione’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Mangione’s lawyers were facing a Thursday deadline to provide prosecutors with evidence supporting the emotional disturbance claim. Also on Thursday, a transcript from a June 3 closed-door hearing on the issue was unsealed after Judge Gregory Carro ordered it made public.
If Mangione were to have gone through with the extreme emotional disturbance defense, 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 defense, 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 lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the defense “respectfully withdraws” its notice under New York’s psychiatric defense statute.
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 defense, saying it will be “prejudicial to his defense to the exact same facts” in his federal case, where an extreme emotional disturbance defense isn’t allowed.
An emotional disturbance defense is not the same as a not guilty by reason of insanity defense, 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 kilometers) 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.”
