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It’s so crazy it just might work!
Luigi Mangione’s plan to mount a head-scratching psych defense at his highly anticipated murder trial could actually work in his favor, legal experts said.
It was revealed at a court hearing Wednesday that Mangione’s team plans to claim he was in the throes of an “extreme emotional disturbance” when he allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
If jurors buy the legal maneuver, they could opt to convict him of manslaughter rather than murder — lowering the maximum penalty from life to 25 years behind bars.
“This is not a crazy defense, it is both the best defense Luigi has, and sort of the perfect defense given his past statements,” veteran Big Apple defense attorney Ron Kuby told The Post.
Crucially, using a psych defense will allow Mangione to introduce evidence, either through his own testimony or through expert medical witnesses, regarding his reasons for despising the US private healthcare industry.
This could show him in a sympathetic light to the jury while casting Thompson in a negative light, Kuby said.
“Everything that Luigi knew or believed about the healthcare system — all of his grievances, all of his bitterness, all of his history — comes into evidence,” Kuby told The Post.
“They need to understand Luigi’s rage at the healthcare system, and Brian Thompson’s role in it. They don’t need to agree with that rage, but they need to understand it.”
Kuby said the case will hinge on whether jurors believe there is a “reasonable” explanation for Mangione’s loss of self-control and extreme emotional disturbance.
Another New York defense attorney and former prosecutor Seth Zuckerman agreed it’s a “plausible” defense strategy.
Mangione’s team could try to use his potentially damning manifesto — in which he muses about wanting to “wack” [sic] a healthcare boss — to their advantage by claiming it shows just how emotionally disturbed he was.
“I don’t think premeditation negates the possibility that someone is acting under an extreme emotional disturbance … the defense will say this is further evidence that he was extremely emotionally disturbed.”
The psych defense is “clearly his best chance” at avoiding spending the rest of his life in prison after Judge Gregory Carro handed prosecutors a key win by allowing them to use the notebook and alleged murder weapon found in his backpack, Zuckerman added.
Still, the psych defense means Mangione will need to essentially admit that he killed Thompson as part of his defense, Zuckerman said.
“It’s almost as if he is admitting to the homicide and saying that there was a reason for the homicide,” Zuckerman explained.
But New York Law School professor Heather Cucolo didn’t think a jury would buy the legal gambit since the evidence appears to show the meticulous planning that went into the murder and because jurors would be reluctant to consider evidence that might result in a lighter sentence.
“He had the materials, he had a plan, had to put everything together. All of that is going to cut against what I think jurors … are generally going to believe,” Cucolo said.
When Mangione was arrested five days after the killing in Altoona, Pa., cops found a red journal, a gun, zip ties and duct tape inside his backpack, prosecutors have said.
The shooting was also captured on surveillance video and investigators found Mangione’s DNA on a cellphone, water bottle and a piece of gum the masked gunman could be seen tossing before he ran from the scene, prosecutors alleged.
“I think a jury is going to have a difficult time with this,” she said.
Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty in both the state and a separate federal case alleging he shot the 50-year-old healthcare honcho at close range on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan in broad daylight. Thompson was married with two sons.
Judge Carro said Mangione’s lawyers would need to further explain the details of the psych defense by Thursday as both sides prepare for the Sept. 8 trial.
English (US)