- Jan 25, 2000
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FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
WINNIPEG, Manitoba ? A Canadian judge ruled Thursday that a man accused of beheading and cannibalizing a fellow Greyhound bus passenger is not criminally responsible due to mental illness.
The decision means Chinese immigrant Vince Li will be treated in a mental institution instead of going to prison. The family of victim Tim McLean dismissed
?A crime was still committed here, a murder still occurred,? said Carol deDelley, McLean?s mother. ?There was nobody else on that bus holding a knife, slicing up my child.?
The judge said Li should not be held criminally accountable for stabbing McLean dozens of times last July and dismembering his body while horrified passengers fled.
Justice John Scurfield said Li?s attack 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-defense,? Scurfield said.
Both the prosecution and the defense argued Li can?t be held responsible because Li was suffering from schizophrenia and believed God wanted him to kill McLean because the young man was a force of evil.
He will be institutionalized without a criminal record and will be reassessed every year by a mental health review board to determine if he is fit for release into the community.
DeDelley said a yearly hearing is ridiculous, and that Li should be locked up for the rest of his life.
Li?s trial barely lasted two days and only heard from two witnesses, both psychiatrists, who testified he is mentally ill.
That Li killed the 22-year-old carnival worker was never in question at the trial. Li has admitted he killed McLean but pleaded not guilty.
Witnesses said Li attacked McLean unprovoked as their bus traveled at night along a desolate stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway.
An agreed statement of facts between the prosecution and defense detailed how passengers stood outside the bus as Li stabbed McLean dozens of times and beheaded and mutilated his body. Finding himself locked inside the bus, Li finally escaped through a window and was arrested.
Li then apologized and pleaded with police to kill him.
Police said McLean?s body parts were found throughout the bus in plastic bags, and the victim?s ear, nose and tongue were found in Li?s pocket.
A psychiatrist called by the prosecution Wednesday testified that Li cut up McLean?s body because he believed that he would come back to life and take revenge.
Originally posted by: RapidSnail
Why do we put animals to death if they kill or maim a person (pitbulls and other dogs are prime examples), but the insanity plea allows human perpetrators to skip jail time?
Originally posted by: RapidSnail
Why do we put animals to death if they kill or maim a person (pitbulls and other dogs are prime examples), but the insanity plea allows human perpetrators to skip jail time?
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: RapidSnail
Why do we put animals to death if they kill or maim a person (pitbulls and other dogs are prime examples), but the insanity plea allows human perpetrators to skip jail time?
...because they're insane.
Originally posted by: ric1287
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: RapidSnail
Why do we put animals to death if they kill or maim a person (pitbulls and other dogs are prime examples), but the insanity plea allows human perpetrators to skip jail time?
...because they're insane.
so what purpose do they serve on earth then?
Originally posted by: ric1287
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: RapidSnail
Why do we put animals to death if they kill or maim a person (pitbulls and other dogs are prime examples), but the insanity plea allows human perpetrators to skip jail time?
...because they're insane.
so what purpose do they serve on earth then?
Originally posted by: Iron Woode
I recall an episode of Quincy, ME in which they are debating the insanity defense.
They proposed the verdict "Not guilty by reason of insanity" should be changed to "Guilty but insane" and be punished like any other criminal.
Originally posted by: ric1287
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: RapidSnail
Why do we put animals to death if they kill or maim a person (pitbulls and other dogs are prime examples), but the insanity plea allows human perpetrators to skip jail time?
...because they're insane.
so what purpose do they serve on earth then?
Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
My understanding of "not guilty by way of insanity" means that instead of a definite prison sentence (ie. 20 years to life, possibility of parole in 15), he'll be committed to a mental institution for an indeterminate amount of time until he is deemed "sane," which will be never. So he's not "getting off," he's just going to spend the rest of his life in a cell with padded walls rather than concrete ones.
Originally posted by: barfo
Was anyone truly expecting him to go to prison?
If what he did is not insanity then I don't know what is.
