Criminal or Insane

By CHINTA PUXLEY, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Her son was sleeping peacefully, listening to music on his earphones as the Greyhound bus drove across the Prairies last summer.

Minutes later, horrified passengers heard Tim McLean “scream bloody murder” as he was repeatedly stabbed and eventually decapitated.

Seven months later, McLean’s mother Carol deDelley is steeling herself to face the man charged with second-degree murder in her son’s brutal slaying as Vince Li goes on trial in Winnipeg tomorrow.

But she doesn’t expect closure from the proceedings, regardless of the outcome.

“There is no possible good outcome for me,” she said. “The trial to me seems like another thing we have to endure — a formality that we have to sit through.”

That’s because the sole issue at the three-day trial, being heard by a judge without a jury, will be whether Li is criminally responsible for his actions.

Li’s lawyers have said they are not disputing that he killed McLean. Experts anticipate his lawyers will argue he was in an automaton state brought on by a mental health disorder and should be institutionalized rather than imprisoned.

If this argument is successful, Li would not have a criminal record and could eventually be released if deemed healthy by a mental health review board. Unlike a conviction for murder, anyone found not criminally responsible is also not required to serve a minimum amount of time in detention.

But the victim’s mother says the prospect that the man charged in her son’s death might eventually be released is too much to bear. The law has to be changed so anyone found not criminally responsible for a crime still serves time in prison, she said.

“I don’t think mental illness ought to absolve you of your responsibilities for your behaviour,” Carol deDelley said yesterday. “Once the crime has been committed I still believe they need to be held responsible, otherwise what sort of a message are you sending?” (more…)

Bill C-30: an attractive option for defendants

A Follow-Up Study of Persons Found Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder in British Columbia
On February 4, 1992, significant changes were made to the mental disorder provisions contained in the Canadian Criminal Code following the introduction of Bill C-30 (1). These amendments were proclaimed into force after the Supreme Court of Canada declared—in R v Swain (2)—that the Criminal Code sections pertaining to the automatic detention of individuals deemed not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) were in violation of sections 7 and 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Objective: To describe the characteristics of individuals found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD) after the 1992 Criminal Code amendments and to track their movement through the forensic system, as well as to unveil the changes to British Columbia’s forensic psychiatric system that resulted from Bill C-30.

Method: Profile information relating to persons found NCRMD between February 4, 1992, and February 4, 1998, in British Columbia was collected and analyzed. Community follow-up data was collected and analyzed for a 24-month period following a subject’s discharge from hospital.

Results: A substantially greater number of individuals entered the forensic psychiatric system in British Columbia after Bill C-30 was implemented. The post-1992 forensic psychiatric population contained fewer persons charged with serious index offences and a greater number of persons charged with relatively minor offences. The length of hospitalization for the NCRMD cohort decreased substantially after the 1992 Criminal Code amendments.

Conclusion: The Bill C-30 provisions have made the NCRMD defence an attractive option for defendants and legal counsel.

The study made a number of interesting points including the average length of initial hospitalization for persons discharged to the community according to the most serious index offence, presented in Table 2.

Not Criminally Responsible

What is NCR…
The notion that an individual who suffers from mental disorder may not bear the full weight of responsibility for their actions dates back to ancient times. Although various approaches to a legal test for criminal responsibility date back centuries in the Anglo-American tradition, some major historical trials during the 19th century in Britain culminated in the enunciation of the so-called McNaughten Rules (1843) in which the Law Lords of Great Britain indicated that for an individual to be found Not Responsible for their act or omission, their mental disorder must render them unable to know the nature and quality of the act or that it was wrong.

In the years following, courts on both sides of the Atlantic struggled with the meaning of the individual words of this rule. At the present time in Canada the Criminal Code dictates a test, derived from McNaughten, stating that for an individual to found “Not Criminally Responsible”, they must have been unable, by virtue of mental disorder, to appreciate the nature and quality of the act or know that it is wrong. Within Canadian jurisprudence, these individual words have been subject to judicial interpretation.

http://www.forensicpsychiatry.ca/

Canada – Guilty of Gullibility

exert from column by Charles Adler

Folks, I want to ask you a question. In the so-called trial held in a Canadian court room, a trial to determine whether the defendant was guilty or not guilty of murdering Tim McLean, do you know how many witnesses were called? Two. Both of them psychiatrists, who both agreed that the defendant was not criminally responsible because he was ill. None of the testimony was challenged by the Prosecution because the Prosecution agreed with the Defence on everything of substance and there was no point in challenging testimony they agreed with. So who was representing the victim’s family and the family known as the Canadian people? Were there eyewitnesses to the crime? Dozens of them. The passengers and the bus driver. Why weren’t any of them called? The so-called witnesses who were called, weren’t witnesses of anything. They were two doctors who talked to the accused, who under medication told a story of God and voices. We have no evidence that he is telling the truth, but we are told that he is a sick man, obviously a sick man. Jefferey Dahmer was a sick man. Charles Manson was a sick man. Paul Bernardo was a sick man. Because the man who killed Tim McLean and presumably ate his victim’s eyeballs – because he was sick and is sick – the rest of us are forced to be sickened by the notion that he is saved from a permanent incarceration by his sickness, which the witnesses say can be medicated away.

And so the family of Tim McLean will have to deal with a yearly review, a yearly report on their son’s killer. They will spend the rest of their lives praying that psychiatrists keep on giving Vincent Li’s mind a failing grade. But the system this week was all about feeling good, instead of doing good. It helped the “feel good” to not call any eyewitnesses to the crime. Eyewitness testimony of that July night, on that bus, would have left nobody feeling good. The truth of what happened does not contain a speck of “feel good” and the public would have gotten very, very angry. Instead we got two shrinks. Feel good practitioners telling us that Vincent was a good guy, had always been a good guy, had a bad night and doesn’t really know what he did that night. All he knows is that he heard the voice of God telling him to kill the passenger next to him. He knew enough to buy a knife, and carry it on a bus. He knew enough to butcher a relatively small man, a vulnerable man. He doesn’t really know what he did, but he knows what he was instructed to do by the voices. No need to challenge this testimony???? No, this is really as solid as the rock of Gibraltar. No one would think of challenging a doctor who deals with mental illness and has done hours and hours of interviews with a person who has murdered and cannibalized. (more…)

The petition for Tim’s Law

This petition has been started in hopes that the laws will be changed regarding persons being found not criminally responsible for their actions due to mental illness. They should still be held criminally responsible, and unable to re-enter society.

“Tim’s Law is if you voluntary take an innocent life you will lose your freedom for the rest of your life. I think that’s fair and reasonable and I think that’s justice,”

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/timslaw/index.html

Family wasn’t shocked

It was a verdict Tim McLean’s family knew was coming, one they didn’t want to hear.

Before a packed courtroom yesterday morning, Justice John Scurfield ruled Vincent Li not be held criminally responsible for stabbing, dismembering and decapitating McLean aboard a Greyhound bus last summer.

The decision means Li will not be going to jail, but a mental institution.

“Persons who are profoundly ill do not have the mental capacity to intentionally commit a crime,” Scurfield said.

“The goal of criminal law is to punish criminals, not persons who have a mental illness.”

Scurfield ordered Li to remain in a secure psychiatric facility until a hearing can be scheduled before the Criminal Code review board. Li is expected to then be committed to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre for long-term treatment.

Once lodged at the centre, Li will be subject to annual reviews to consider his release.

“We didn’t go into this morning with any surprises expected and we didn’t get any,” McLean’s mother Carol deDelley told reporters outside court. “We will now have to go on a yearly basis, instead of having a birthday party, to ensure Mr. Li is kept locked up to keep everybody else safe.”

“Knowing that killer might get out very soon is very hard,” said McLean’s father Tim.

At a trial earlier this week, two forensic psychiatrists testified Li is a schizophrenic who believed he heard the voice of God directing him to kill McLean.

McLean’s family is calling on the federal government to pass a new law requiring mandatory life sentences for murder, regardless of the offender’s mental state.

“There is still a possibility of him being freed,” deDelley said. “Is the likelihood there? I’m not sure, but the possibility shouldn’t even be there. He still did it, whether he was in his right frame of mind or not. There was nobody else on that bus holding a knife slicing up my child.”

Li’s two-day trial heard testimony from just two witnesses — the forensic psychiatrists who examined him. Crown attorney Joyce Dalmyn said because Li admitted killing McLean, there was no reason to hear testimony from the nearly three dozen passengers who were on the bus with them.

Awaiting clarification

Dalmyn said the Crown’s office is still awaiting clarification from the RCMP as to whether an NCR finding means Li will have a criminal record.

“Certainly it is something that the RCMP do track and is information that would be available to them were there any further finding or charges in the future,” she said.

The Schizophrenia Society of Canada: We can solve this…

The following news clip attribute statements  to The Schizophrenia Society of Canada:

While we understand and empathize with Timothy’s mother and the McLean family and support their concern for public safety, we do not believe that the proposed “Tim’s Law”, which would have individuals deemed Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) incarcerated for life, is the solution. Both Tim McLean and Mr. Li are victims of a complete psychotic episode, in which Mr. Li had no insight and awareness of his actions.

Yet this same group states

The Schizophrenia Society of Canada is urging the federal government to adopt a national mental health strategy that is recovery-oriented and encompasses mental health literacy, mental health promotion, early intervention, adequate treatment as well as community supports and services.

The article also attributes this statement

Vince Li was beginning treatment at a mental health facility in Ontario as an involuntary patient. But he left the hospital without anyone apparently intervening. Therefore it raises the question about whether the mental health care system responded appropriately in this case.

More taxpayer’s dollars!

Does this sound right? It would be acceptable for health professionals to intervene, prior to a crime being committed… but unacceptable to protect the public after the person has committed a heinous crime … lawyers would have a field day at the taxpayers expense!

The following is the news story in its entirety:

The Schizophrenia Society of Canada (SCC) extends its sympathy to both the McLean family and the Li family as they struggle to come to terms with the tragic incident around the death of Timothy McLean.

The Schizophrenia Society of Canada remains concerned about the negative or limited information that exists regarding individuals with schizophrenia and psychosis. This has been evident in the recent case of Vincent Li.

(more…)

Judge rules not criminally responsible

A judge has ruled that Vincent Li is not criminally responsible for the murder and dismemberment of Tim McLean aboard a Greyhound bus.

Yet, in a strange development confirmed shortly after the ruling, a government official told media Li will have a criminal record, which is not typically the case for those found not criminally responsible (NCR).

That official has not yet explained why or how this will occur.

Earlier, the judge did offer insight as to why he chose the NCR ruling.

“Persons who are profoundly ill do not have the mental capacity to intentionally commit a crime,” said Justice John Scurfield.

“This case has attracted international attention because of the barbaric manner in which Mr. McLean was killed,” Scurfield said.

“These grotesque acts are appalling…but are strongly suggestive of a mental disorder.”

The ruling means Li will be held in custody at a mental institution, not jail.

Li will remain in secure custody at the psychiatric unit of Health Sciences Centre until a hearing can be scheduled before the mental health review board.

Vincent Li Found NOT Criminally Responsible

Vince Li has been found not criminally responsible in the unprovoked killing of fellow passenger Timothy McLean on a Greyhound bus last summer.

Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Judge John Scurfield said Thursday that Li, 40, could not be found guilty of murder and is not criminally responsible for the crime because he was mentally ill at the time of the killing.

“These grotesque acts are appalling… but are suggestive of a mental disorder,” the judge said.

“He did not appreciate the act he committed was wrong.”

Li had pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder. Psychiatric evidence at his trial suggested he is a schizophrenic who suffered a major psychotic episode last July 30 when he stabbed McLean, 22, to death.

For five hours after the killing Li wandered around on the bus, from which passengers had fled onto a lonely stretch of Manitoba highway, defiling the body while an RCMP tactical team waited to subdue him.

Rather than go to prison, Li will be kept in a secure psychiatric facility, most likely in Selkirk, Man.

He comes under the jurisdiction of Manitoba’s provincial review board, which will decide whether he poses a risk to the public. The review board has the power to keep Li locked up indefinitely or, if he is no longer considered a risk, discharge him.

McLean’s family had been lobbying for a change in the Criminal Code to prevent mentally ill killers from being released back into the community. His mother, Carol de Delley, has said that regardless of the verdict, she would do everything in her power to ensure Li is never released from secure custody.

Greyhound bus witnesses receive $450 after gruesome killing

Greyhound Canada has offered six counselling sessions and paid $450 compensation to a young Manitoba couple who were first-hand witnesses to a horrific killing on a passenger bus last summer.

Stephen Allison and his wife, Isabelle, were sitting opposite Vince Li and Tim McLean on Greyhound bus 1170 last July 30 when Li pulled a knife and killed young McLean.

“Seeing that is not something you get over very quickly,” Stephen Allison, 20, said Wednesday. “It’s made me a shell of my former self. I’m trying to get back to normal but it’s hard.”

He still recalls vividly the events of that night. (more…)