Luigi Mangione abruptly drops the ‘Extreme emotional disturbance’ defense

However, mental health professionals were already worried it would have been a tough sell.

“On the face of it, it appears to be a very, very weak case,” said Sandip Buch, a psychiatrist and owner of a telehealth group practice. Skypiatrist.com.

“It is very unclear whether he had a mental illness, but this crime appeared to require planning and execution, which shows capacity, and his planning and escape actions showed that he knew what he was doing was wrong.”

Brian C. Stewart, attorney at Parker & McConkiesaid proving that Mangione “got it” could have been nearly impossible.

“You need a real psychiatric break, not just raging at an industry. And his own writings are organized, deliberate, almost calculating,” he explained. “Prosecutors are going to read directly from his notebook to argue that this was a man who was thinking clearly, and not someone who was losing his mind.”