Luigi Mangione defense team changes strategy

[00:00:00]With Luigi Mangione's state trial now just a couple months away, a surprising reversal from his defense lawyers.

[00:00:06]>> Just a day after revealing plans to allege she was suffering an extreme emotional disturbance when United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down, they're withdrawing from that defense. So, what exactly does that mean and what comes next?

[00:00:18]>> Yeah, so this is an important story and you might not have caught it with all the Knicks celebration. ABC's Aaron Katersky is here to break it all down.

[00:00:24]So, Aaron, let's get started. This is an extreme emotional disturbance defense.

[00:00:30]How is it different from the defense they were mounting before and what does this entail?

[00:00:34]>> We didn't know, Sam, what kind of defense they were going to try and and put up because the evidence is seemingly so overwhelming. There's video of the crime. There's his face everywhere in New York City. There's the DNA evidence that prosecutors say they have. They the murder weapon that police said he was carrying when they arrested him. So, finally the defense revealed in this hearing earlier this week that they were going to try and mount a psychiatric defense and and allege that when Brian Thompson was shot outside the Hilton in Midtown, Luigi Mangione was experiencing extreme emotional distress. But, to do that, you effectively have to concede that he pulled the trigger, right?

[00:01:22]And and now, just after 1 day, there was that abrupt reversal and and the defense is no longer going to invoke that kind of defense.

[00:01:30]>> Wow. So, what is that signal? Like to the jurors when you when you switch your defense like that?

[00:01:36]>> Well, it it it surely it it it signals perhaps a couple of things. One, they don't want to concede that he did it, which that kind of defense effectively requires you to do.

[00:01:45]They don't want to turn over psychiatric records, which were due to the prosecutors.

[00:01:51]We don't know what's in those records because they're not public now.

[00:01:54]So, it it says that they just have a different strategy in mind. What that is, we don't know yet.

[00:02:00]>> So, what are the next steps?

[00:02:02]>> So, there will be another hearing in August, and at that point, maybe we'll learn a little bit more about what the defense intends here, Danny, but uh they have not exactly said how they're going to defend Luigi Manjione against the crime. Are they going to try and argue he was somewhere else at the time?

[00:02:20]The the the evidence would suggest to the contrary, uh but we'll see.

[00:02:25]>> Aaron, I don't understand these things, you do, but they don't have to actually tell anything about the defense prior to performing the defense. I guess when he comes to trial, is that the way that works?

[00:02:35]>> Except in this case with a psychiatric defense, it does require some disclosures to prosecutors, so they can also mine the records >> I see.

[00:02:45]>> and be prepared to to try and counter it at at trial. Uh that would have happened already. Now that they have withdrawn their intention to invoke this defense, they don't have to turn over those records, so you're right, Sam. Right now, the defense doesn't have to say much.

[00:03:01]>> Okay.