Good piece from Saskatoon on not criminally responsible

Mental illness not criminal


By John Gormley,

The StarPhoenixMarch 6, 2009 7:01 AM


It should surprise no one that Vince Li has been declared not criminally responsible for the brutal killing of a fellow traveller on a bus near Portage la Prairie, Man., last summer.
From the beginning, the sordid tragedy had more to do with mental illness than crime.

Tim McLean, 22, who had offered Li an empty seat beside him on the bus, was beheaded and then his body defiled as Li began eating the remains.

McLean -- and it could have been any random person on the bus -- would never know the polite and unassuming stranger beside him was in the midst of a major psychotic episode and was spiraling downward, hallucinating and hearing voices telling him to kill or be killed.

Court heard that Li would not commit to appropriate treatment for schizophrenia, would disappear from work and often take long unexplained trips on buses.

Based on the facts of this macabre case and the evidence of two psychiatrists, the prosecution and defence jointly urged the judge to find Li "not criminally responsible," which replaced the old "not guilty by reason of insanity" provisions of the law.

This arises when an accused has committed the offence but, because of a mental disorder, is unable to know or understand what he was doing or is not able to understand that what he did was wrong.

The Li case is a clear example. Committed to a secure psychiatric facility, Li will be seen annually by a board that will monitor his treatment and may eventually release him.

In some cases, such as the Saskatchewan man who murdered nine members of a family at Shell Lake in 1967, Li could remain in a mental health facility for the rest of his life.

But in other cases, a patient is released back into the community with strict treatment guidelines.

Nothing will bring back Tim McLean. Treatment may bring back Vince Li. But an entire nation knows what peril there is should Li ever fall again