Defense team withdraws psychiatric claim in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing case
The lawyer for Luigi Mangione has withdrawn a request to use an extreme emotional disturbance defense in his upcoming state trial for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione’s legal counsel informed Judge Gregory Carro on Thursday that they are no longer pursuing a psychiatric defense in the state trial for the December 4, 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson. The withdrawal follows a deadline to provide prosecutors with details supporting the previously announced extreme emotional disturbance claim.
In a letter to the judge, attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote that the defense "respectfully withdraws" its notice under New York’s psychiatric defense statute. Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal charges, is scheduled to face a state trial on September 8 and a federal trial on October 13 that includes stalking allegations.
Under New York law, an extreme emotional disturbance defense does not exonerate a defendant but could reduce a murder conviction to manslaughter, carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years instead of life imprisonment.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on the withdrawal, and Mangione’s lawyers have not responded to a request for comment. Earlier in the week, a transcript of a June 3 secret hearing was unsealed after Judge Carro ordered its release. At a prior hearing, Friedman Agnifilo argued that unsealing the materials would prejudice Mangione’s defense in the federal case, where the extreme emotional disturbance defense is not permitted.
Thompson, 50, was shot while walking to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance footage captured a masked gunman firing from behind. Police noted that the ammunition bore the words “delay”, “deny” and “depose”, echoing language used by insurers to avoid claim payments.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate, was arrested five days after the shooting at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Prosecutors have linked him to the crime through a 3D-printed pistol matching the murder weapon and a notebook in which he expressed a desire to "wack" a health-insurance executive and criticized the industry as a "deadly, greed-fueled health insurance cartel".