Luigi Mangione Drops Psychiatric Defense One Day After Filing: What to Know

Luigi Mangione's legal team has withdrawn plans to pursue a psychiatric defense in his New York state trial over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to a court filing made Thursday-just one day after raising the possibility in court.

"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.

Why the Defense Pulled the Plug on ‘Emotional Disturbance'

This strategic pivot follows a high-stakes courtroom collision over the unsealing of Luigi Mangione's defense documents. In a Manhattan courtroom, lead defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said that exposing his psychiatric defense strategy would deeply sabotage his upcoming federal case, arguing that the defense “is not available federally… and this is prejudicial to his defense to the exact same facts.”

When Judge Gregory Carro ruled against the defense-siding with state prosecutors who accused them of “stonewalling” and issuing a strict deadline to hand over all specific medical files and expert names-the defense chose to drop the claim entirely on that exact deadline rather than expose the records.

The defense team appears trapped by the rigid mechanics of New York penal law, which treats “extreme emotional disturbance” as an affirmative defense. To successfully downgrade a murder charge to manslaughter, a defendant must essentially concede to pulling the trigger while proving a severe loss of self-control.

Had Mangione's attorneys complied with the judge’s order, any psychological evaluations, expert findings or implicit admissions of guilt handed to state prosecutors could have effectively handed a roadmap to federal prosecutors preparing his separate stalking case. Legal experts point out that this risk likely forced the defense to pull the plug on the strategy to mitigate the threat of cross-jurisdictional self-incrimination.

"In essence, this defense is a, ‘Yes I did it, but,’ defense," veteran New York defense attorney Ron Kuby told Courthouse News, noting that any such state-court testimony or psychological files would immediately sabotage the subsequent federal trial. "And as a defense lawyer, I don’t want Mangione saying, ‘Yes, I did it

This is a breaking news article. Updates to follow.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 6:11 PM.