Luigi Mangione has abruptly scrapped the psychiatric defense he planned to use at his upcoming trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

“The defense respectfully withdraws CPL 250.10 notice at this time,” the accused killer’s lawyers wrote to Judge Gregory Carro in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Luigi Mangione has abruptly scrapped the psychiatric defense he planned to use at his upcoming trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Steven Hirsch for NY Post

The letter means that Mangione no longer plans to argue that he was in the throes of an “extreme emotional disturbance” when he gunned down Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk in December 2024.

The eyebrow-raising legal gambit would have knocked the charge down to manslaughter instead of murder — carrying less prison time — if jurors bought it.