Video Luigi Mangione attorneys withdraw psychiatric defense in UnitedHealthcare CEO murder trial Luigi Mangione's attorneys withdraw a psychiatric defense in his state murder trial, where he is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Fox News contributor Paul Mauro details how this defense, based on extreme emotional disturbance, implies admitting the crime and could complicate his federal case.
Accused UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione returns to court Monday for a hearing on jury selection in his upcoming federal trial — days after reports that a potential plea deal had fallen apart.
The 28-year-old former Ivy Leaguer is also facing a separate state-level murder case in the December 2024 shooting of Brian Thompson, 50.
Since April, Justice Department prosecutors and Mangione's defense team have been working on the jury questionnaire for his federal trial.
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Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan state court in New York on Sept. 16, 2025, as a judge drops terrorism charges against him in the case involving the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post)
The proposed jury questionnaires have not been made public, but the sides have argued about them in court filings. Prosecutors filed a letter with the court in May listing their objections to some of the defense's proposed questions, calling some overly intrusive or duplicative.
Some things the defense is looking to learn about prospective jurors includes their living situations, including whether they own or rent a home, their employment status, and if they have worked toward a goal as a part of a group, whether they have children and background information on their children, and details about their faith.
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UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024, while heading to a shareholder conference. (Steven Hirsch for New York Post via Pool)
The defense also seeks to ask jurors about their background in the context of jails, firearms and law enforcement, the type of television shows they watch, and any prejudices with the criminal justice system. The defense wants to know if a juror regularly stays at the Hilton on 6th Avenue, the scene of the crime — and whether the potential juror works for or holds stock in UnitedHealthcare.
Last week, reports citing anonymous sources claimed that Mangione's attorneys and federal prosecutors were having discussions about a plea deal but were unable to come to an agreement.
In a statement to Fox, Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo called information attributed to anonymous sources, "a troubling, deliberate pattern by prosecutors and law enforcement to prejudice Luigi." A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on the reported plea negotiations.
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Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shown in an undated portrait provided by UnitedHealth. He was shot and killed on his way to an investor conference in New York City in what prosecutors described as a politically motivated assassination. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)
Separately, Mangione's lawyers floated and then withdrew a potential psychiatric defense in the state case.
They sent a one-sentence letter to the court, telling Judge Gregory Carro that they were withdrawing a notice made public just a day earlier that signaled plans to pursue an extreme emotional disturbance defense in his state case.
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Evidence including Luigi Mangione's gun was presented by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office during a suppression hearing in the investigation of the murder of UNC CEO Brian Thompson. (DOJ)
The move would have required Mangione to concede that he shot Thompson, a father of two, at his state trial. If he were later convicted under New York's extreme emotional disturbance law, the murder charge would be reduced to manslaughter, and the potential sentence would be reduced from 25 years to life in prison to five to 25 years.
With his federal trial not scheduled to begin until early next year, it's unclear how such a defense in the state case would have impacted that one. The federal case carries stiffer potential sentences, and there is no federal equivalent to New York's emotional disturbance law.
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Mangione is accused of plotting the murder, traveling across state lines to New York City ahead of a UnitedHealthcare business conference and shooting Thompson in the back outside the venue.
Prosecutors have alleged he had used a fake name to check into a Manhattan hostel and then fled to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police arrested him at a McDonald's restaurant.
