Mangione drops psychiatric defense in Manhattan murder case

Luigi Mangione’s lawyers reversed course and withdrew a planned psychiatric defense in his New York state murder case, a striking turn in the prosecution over the Dec. 4, 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan. Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty, and his state trial remains scheduled for September 2026.

The change came only a day after the defense told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that it intended to pursue an extreme-emotional-disturbance theory. Under New York law, that argument can reduce a murder conviction to manslaughter if a jury accepts it, shifting the case from a potential life sentence to a much shorter term. Legal reporting in New York has said manslaughter could carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Carro responded at Wednesday’s hearing by ordering Mangione’s attorneys to turn over psychiatric records and the name of their expert witness to prosecutors by Thursday so the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office could have its own expert evaluate him. The judge also said the records would be unsealed, making the psychiatric-defense dispute part of the public record. By Thursday, the defense filed a one-line notice saying, “The defense respectfully withdraws CPL § 250.10 notice at this time,” and said it would not introduce psychiatric evidence “at this time.”

The abrupt retreat leaves open a key question in a case that has already drawn intense attention and repeated fights over sealed records and evidence. It was not immediately clear what prompted the change, and Mangione’s lawyers did not explain the shift when they withdrew the notice. The reversal also means prosecutors will not have to confront, at least for now, the expert psychiatric battle that could have become central to the trial.

Mangione’s case has become one of the most closely watched murder prosecutions in Manhattan since Thompson was shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan. With the psychiatric-defense option pulled back and the September 2026 trial date still on the calendar, the case now heads toward a trial focused on the underlying killing rather than a mental-state defense that could have changed the charge and the stakes dramatically.