Mangione's lawyers reverse course on psychiatric defence in state murder trial

Lawyers for the defendant accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson will no longer argue a psychiatric defence at his state murder trial.Luigi Mangione's attorneys reversed course a day after telling Judge Gregory Carro that they would try to show he was suffering from "extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the occurrence".Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty in both the federal and state cases against him for the fatal shooting of Thompson in midtown Manhattan at the end of 2024.The BBC has contacted Mangione's attorneys. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment.The reversal came ahead of a Thursday deadline Mangione's legal team was facing to provide prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorney's office with information in support of the psychiatric defence claim.If Mangione had pursued the psychiatric defence, and the jury accepted it, then he could have faced a shorter prison sentence as he might have faced a conviction for manslaughter, instead of murder.By using a psychiatric defence argument, Mangione would have essentially admitted to killing Thompson with mitigating circumstances, legal expert Richard Schoenstein told CBS.