The defense team for Luigi Mangione now plans to use a psychiatric defense at his state murder trial this fall. During a court hearing on Wednesday morning, his attorneys officially notified the court of what is known as an affirmative psychiatric defense, signaling a major shift in the strategy heading into one of the most closely watched murder cases in New York.
The lawyers are planning to argue that Mangione was experiencing an extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the murder. It is the first disclosure by Mangione's attorneys of any mental defect since his arrest a year and a half ago, and it sets up a central fight over his state of mind when the killing took place.
His attorneys are not denying that it is him captured in images from December 2024. He was seen in a hooded sweatshirt approaching UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson from behind, pointing what investigators describe as a 3D printed gun fitted with a silencer at the back of his head and pulling the trigger.
The new defense notice comes one month after the court issued a 17 page decision denying a defense motion to toss out key evidence in the case. That evidence includes a red notebook that prosecutors call a manifesto, containing writings that rail against what the author described as a deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel and weigh how to target a company chief executive.
Mangione has not yet been evaluated by mental health experts working for the Manhattan district attorney's office. Prosecutors told the court they have been stonewalled, saying it has been a problem with the defense since last September, and added that they still do not know who the defense expert is or what the legal grounds for the defense will be.
Judge Gregory Caro then ordered the defense to turn over the information. He warned the attorneys that they were coming close to not being able to put up that defense at all, telling them he would not allow them to surprise the prosecution on the eve of the trial and instructing them to get it done.
Separately, in court on Monday, prosecutors asked to have Mangione moved from federal custody in Brooklyn to Rikers Island for the state trial. They said the transfer would make him more accessible so he can be brought to Bellevue, allowing their own experts to carry out a psychiatric evaluation ahead of the proceedings this fall.