OAN Staff Lillian Mann
6:01 PM – Thursday, June 18, 2026
Just one day after Mangione’s defense team announced plans to pursue a psychiatric defense, his attorneys abruptly withdrew the strategy that had been expected to become a central component of the 28-year-old’s upcoming murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to court filings.
In documents released on Thursday, Mangione’s lawyers delivered a one-sentence note to sitting Judge Gregory Carro. In the note, one of Mangione lawyers, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said the defense “respectfully withdraws” its notice under New York’s psychiatric defense statute, the Associated Press reported.
The shocking move marks a dramatic shift in a case that had spotlighted the possibility of an “extreme emotional disturbance” defense — a legal strategy that, if accepted by jurors, could have reduced a murder conviction to first-degree manslaughter under New York law.
Nonetheless, legal observers previously told Fox News Digital that mounting such a defense would have required Mangione’s attorneys to persuade jurors that he had an episode of “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time Thompson was fatally shot in New York City.
Prosecutors contend, on the other hand, that Mangione spent months meticulously planning the murder, documenting his intentions in journals and traveling across the country before purportedly ambushing Thompson in Manhattan.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Agnifilo fiercely objected to Judge Carro’s decision to unseal the psychiatric filings. She argued that exposing the details would heavily prejudice Mangione in his concurrent federal case, noting that the “extreme emotional disturbance” mitigating defense is not legally recognized in the federal system.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all state and federal charges. His New York murder trial remains scheduled to begin on September 8th, with the federal proceedings expected to follow in 2027.
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