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Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, the 28-year-old former Ivy Leaguer accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, indicated he could use an "extreme emotional disturbance" defense, which, if successful, could reduce a murder conviction to first-degree manslaughter if jurors find him guilty after his September trial.
Mangione is also facing a federal trial slated for early next year.
"It's too early to say exactly how it will affect the federal prosecution, and he could theoretically pursue a different defense strategy there," said Randolph Rice, a Maryland-based attorney and legal analyst who is following the case. "But from a practical standpoint, if you're standing in a state courtroom arguing that you shot someone because you were under extreme emotional distress, you may be handing federal prosecutors a significant admission that they can point to later."
The move could significantly reduce the maximum sentence in the state case, if, at the end of the trial, jurors accept the defense but still believe prosecutors proved that Mangione killed Thompson. Murder would be reduced to first-degree manslaughter under New York law upon conviction, resulting in the maximum punishment going from life in prison to a max of 25 years.
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Luigi Mangione appears at a pre-trial hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, N.Y., on June 17, 2026. Mangione is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Bryan Thompson in December 2024. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News)
"This is a very risky trial strategy for the defense," said James Leonard, a high-profile criminal defense attorney based in New Jersey. "They are basically telling the jury that Mangione committed the murder, but here is why he did it and, because of this, you should nullify his guilt. If the jury accepts that, it would be an epic win for the defense team. If the jury rejects that, it will likely mean that Mangione will spend the rest of his life behind bars."
The "extreme emotional disturbance" defense requires his lawyers to convince jurors of three things at trial under New York law:
First, Mangione must show whatever emotional distress he faced at the time of Thompson's murder caused an intense "loss of self-control."
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)
Second, he must have a "reasonable" explanation or excuse for having suffered this distress.
And third, he must have been under this distress at the time of the murder.
"This is high-risk, high-stakes litigation in an extremely high-profile case," Leonard told Fox News Digital.
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Narratively, the defense is expected to focus narrowly around the time of the shooting, while prosecutors will likely show jurors an expanded timeline, according to Rice.
"Prosecutors will argue that journals, planning, travel and an alleged ambush show calculation, not loss of control." he said.
A screenshot from surveillance footage released by the NYPD allegedly shows Luigi Mangione, who was charged in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024. (NYPD Crime Stoppers)
Mangione is accused of meticulously plotting Thompson's assassination and traveling across the country to ambush him outside a business conference in New York City, where neither of them lived.
Mangione did not know Thompson and was not a UnitedHealthcare customer. According to prosecutors, however, he allegedly wrote journals about the plot months before the murder.
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"Ultimately, this defense rises or falls on whether jurors believe Mangione was experiencing such intense emotional distress at the moment of the murder that he lost self-control, or whether this was simply a planned and deliberate killing," Rice said.
His defense in the New York case is not related to the separate federal trial looming ahead, which could send him to prison for life without the possibility of parole if he is convicted there.
"The defense has to balance any benefit they gain in the state case against the possibility that they're giving the federal government evidence on a silver platter," Rice said.
Luigi Mangione is escorted by NYPD officers into a van at the Wall Street Heliport in New York City after being extradited from Pennsylvania for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 19, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi/Fox News Digital)
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His defense team has already won a series of legal victories in both cases. He could have faced life without parole in New York if they hadn't convinced a judge to toss terrorism-related charges, and in his federal case, the judge agreed to take the potential death penalty off the table ahead of trial.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The state trial is scheduled to begin in September, with the federal trial to follow early next year.
