🚨 LEGAL U-TURN — LUIGI MANGIONE FILED A NEW DEFENSE… THEN WITHDREW IT JUST ONE DAY LATER
Luigi Mangione has apparently abruptly scrapped the psychiatric defense he planned to use at his upcoming trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“The defense respectfully withdraws CPL 250.10 notice at this time,” the accused killer’s lawyers wrote to Judge Gregory Carro in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The letter — which refers to the specific part of New York’s criminal code — could mean that Mangione no longer plans to claim he was overtaken by an “extreme emotional disturbance” when he gunned down Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk in December 2024.
Luigi Mangione has abruptly scrapped the psychiatric defense he planned to use at his upcoming trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis
But one experienced Big Apple defense attorney said Mangione could still use the eyebrow-raising tactic — just without providing any medical evidence that he has mental health issues.
“They are still perfectly free to pursue the defense of extreme emotional disturbance,” defense lawyer Ron Kuby told The Post Thursday.
Now, Mangione’s lawyers “cannot call any mental health experts to testify about his mental health,” are barred from showing jurors “any psychiatric or mental health records,” and “cannot introduce any evidence that talks about him having any psychiatric malady,” Kuby added.
If the psychiatric defense is still used in some form — and if jurors buy it — the legal gambit would knock the charge down to manslaughter instead of murder, carrying less prison time.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson (above) was allegedly shot by Mangione outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan in December 2024.UnitedHealth Group
Mangione’s sudden strategy shift came just one day after the judge revealed that the accused assassin’s lawyers planned to use the mental health defense at his upcoming Sept. 8. state trial.
Judge Carro had also ordered Mangione’s lawyers to turn over their medical records describing any “malady” that Mangione purportedly suffered from by the end of Thursday. One possible reason for the “notice” withdrawal could be for Mangione’s attorneys to avoid divulging that information, Kuby said.
A spokeswoman for Mangione’s legal team declined to provide more context on the one-sentence letter sent to the court Thursday night.
Legal experts polled by the Post Wednesday were split on whether the ploy would work, but agreed that it could be Mangione’s best option given the mountain of physical evidence tying him to Thompson’s killing.
Heather Cucolo, a criminal law professor at New York Law School, said a jury “is going to have a difficult time with this” because of evidence that Mangione meticulously planned the execution, including by lying in wait outside Thompson’s hotel in Midtown before the broad daylight shooting.
But Kuby had called the psych strategy “sort of the perfect defense” because it would allow Mangione’s lawyers to highlight the healthcare system’s perils as they probed Mangione’s hatred of Thompson.
SOURCE:https://nypost.com/2026/06/18/us-news/luigi-mangione-bizarrely-withdraws-extreme-emotional-disturbance-defense-claim-1-day-after-filing-it/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=social&sr_share=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawShpSRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFrU05Ja2NlOWhrcHlvUlNTc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrsCe_sQOjGX7dfbWuhfRiH8Zm8CiPUZz20ZOiKcUn2vNJr5Ph2byX-Cu747_aem_YWdncwNO88FbzAe3vqGv57yufvxq&brid=YWdncwEeySknNTp_XetHKYMEV8o2
