NEW YORK (AP) — In a stunning reversal, Luigi Mangione ‘s lawyers told a judge Thursday that he will no longer be asserting a psychiatric defense 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 defense 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. Also Thursday, a transcript of a secret hearing held on the matter on June 3 was made public after Carro ordered it unsealed.
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.
