Mangione withdraws emotional disturbance defence in New York case

NEW YORK – In an abrupt reversal, Luigi Mangione’s lawyers said on June 18 that they had withdrawn their intent to argue that he was experiencing “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time he was accused of killing a UnitedHealthcare executive in midtown Manhattan in 2024.

The withdrawal came one day after the New York state judge overseeing the case, Justice Gregory Carro, revealed at a pretrial hearing that Mangione’s legal team had filed a motion in September notifying the court that it was considering the defence.

In a one-sentence letter, Mangione’s lawyers wrote, “The defence respectfully withdraws CPL (Section) 250.10 notice at this time,” referring to psychiatric evidence.

Because of the withdrawal, Carro put the documents and transcript that exposed the defence strategy back under seal.

Mangione, 28, is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the executive, on the morning of Dec 4, 2024. Surveillance footage showed a man in a hooded sweatshirt emerge from between parked cars, point a handgun affixed with a silencer and fire at Thompson as he walked toward the entrance of a Hilton Hotel in midtown to prepare for an investor conference.

He faces federal charges of stalking and multiple state charges, including second-degree murder. In New York state, if defence lawyers can convince a jury that strong emotions resulted in a “profound loss of self-control,” leading to a homicide, the highest charge their clients can be convicted of is manslaughter, which has a maximum sentence of 25 years.

The murder charge carries 25 years to life.

June 18 was the deadline set by Carro for Mangione’s legal team to provide prosecutors with documents related to the psychiatric defence and to explain “what malady it is that this defendant suffers from”.

The team responded with the withdrawal, and Mangione’s defence strategy now remains publicly unclear. The state trial is scheduled for September, and his federal trial will follow.

At the pretrial hearing on June 17, where the potential defence was disclosed, his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, made several arguments to keep the psychiatric evidence under seal. She said concealment was essential because “this defence is not available federally”.

“Mr Mangione is being prosecuted federally, and this is prejudicial to his federal case about the exact same facts,” she said.

Joel Seidemann, a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said at the hearing that his office would “vigorously” fight any request for postponement of the trial’s start date if Mangione’s lawyers continue to explore the extreme emotional disturbance defence.

Friedman Agnifilo said Seidemann’s statements were “completely unnecessary” because she had not requested a delay.

As the two lawyers argued, Mangione appeared incredulous throughout the exchange, shaking his head. NYTIMES

• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.