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 Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:20 pm Post subject: not criminally responsible |
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| Quote: | WINNIPEG — A man who believed he was following God’s orders when he stabbed and beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba has been found not criminally responsible.
Justice John Scurfield said Vince Li’s attack on Tim McLean last summer was “grotesque” and “barbaric” but “strongly suggestive of a mental disorder.”
“He did not appreciate the actions he committed were morally wrong. He believed he was acting in self-defence,” Scurfield said Thursday.
Both Crown and defence psychiatrists had testified at Li’s trial that he was suffering from schizophrenia and believed God wanted him to kill McLean because the young man was a force of evil.
Li was charged with second-degree murder but pleaded not guilty. (...) |
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Na.....39671.html
Not guilty because of mental instability!
Not criminally responsible!
Free of a criminal record, for taking an innocent life!
In my opinion this murderer should pay harshly for his grotesque crimes, but he gets a free pass when he snaps out of this state that he is 'not responsible for'. |
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IanM
Joined: 28 Jan 2009
Posts: 236
  
votes: 6
Location: Nova Scotia
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| Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Something tells me he's going to be locked away in a hospital for a long, long time. |
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gc
Joined: 23 Jun 2007
Posts: 1698
votes: 16
Location: A Monochromatic World
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| Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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| IanM wrote: | | Something tells me he's going to be locked away in a hospital for a long, long time. |
I agree. Personally, I don't really care if he is locked up in jail or locked up in a hospital, so long as he is not on the streets. |
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plantguy
Joined: 27 Jul 2007
Posts: 448
votes: 1
Location: Lower Economy, Nova Scotia
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| Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| The upside is that, unlike a criminal sentence, there is no fixed term on an insanity sentence. I suspect this guy may never see the light of day again. |
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| Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Hopefully this does not become some excuse so that criminals don't have to go to jail. "God told me too." |
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FF_Canuck
Joined: 02 Sep 2006
Posts: 3360
votes: 17
Location: Southern Alberta
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| Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Rusty Bedsprings wrote: | | Hopefully this does not become some excuse so that criminals don't have to go to jail. "God told me too." |
The spectre's always there, but it doesn't happen for mainly two reasons: 1, it's actually pretty hard to fake a serious mental illness, and 2, the fed pen is pretty luxurious compared to the conditions at a lot of high security mental health facilities, so there's not much in it for a career criminal. There's no statuatory release or day parole when you're held under a mental health certificate. |
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| Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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However, after they put him on meds, and decide he is unlikely to be a danger, they will release him.
After that there ceases to be anything to stop him from dropping his meds, or to go see the psychiatrist if something starts to change.
What they need are laws that require him to stay locked up, and that they can only be released if under constant supervision (in case they try and run away and/or stop taking their meds) |
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