![]() ![]() 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.ĭeDelley said a yearly hearing is ridiculous, and that Li should be locked up for the rest of his life. He believed he was acting in self-defense," Scurfield said.īoth 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 did not appreciate the actions he committed were morally wrong. Justice John Scurfield said Li's attack was "grotesque" and "barbaric" but "strongly suggestive of a mental disorder." 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. "There was nobody else on that bus holding a knife, slicing up my child." "A crime was still committed here, a murder still occurred," said Carol deDelley, McLean's mother. The family of victim Tim McLean dismissed the trial as a "rubber stamp" that allows Li to get away with murder. ![]() The decision means Chinese immigrant Vince Li will be treated in a mental institution instead of going to prison. “It would not be appropriate for me to comment further as the matter may find itself before the courts on appeal from the Review Board’s decision.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. “While I can’t discuss a particular case, individuals who have been found Not Criminally Responsible are in provincial custody, and decisions regarding their release and associated conditions are made by provincial review boards,” she continued in a statement. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said the federal government is “committed to ensuring that our criminal justice system provides the greatest possible protection for Canadians.” “We do have eight years of a track record that he has taken the medication and has done so religiously but the question is: What if he doesn’t?” “He’s not court-ordered to do so anymore.” Schofield said. Not that he doesn’t pose any threat, but he doesn’t pose a significant one.”Īccording to Schofield, the biggest concern is that it is up to Baker to continue to take the medication that has worked for the past eight years. “The test is that he doesn’t pose a significant threat to the public. “There’s a history of compliance,” Schofield told CTV News Channel. Kim Schofield, a Toronto-based criminal lawyer, said the decision is surprising because of the notoriety and severity of the case, but was made on very firm legal ground. “The McLean family are members of the public and the board has ignored the rights of these victims.”Īccording to Prober, it is possible for the attorney general, who represented the family at the review, to have a judicial review done to try and have the review board’s decision quashed due to not properly considering the psychological threat of harm to society. ![]() “The board is supposed to look at the threat not only to physical safety but also psychological harm,” Prober told CTV News Channel. Jay Prober, a criminal lawyer who represents the McLean family, said the decision was disturbing and called it a “travesty of justice.” In a brief Facebook post she said she had no comment on the decision. The mother of Tim McLean, Carol de Delley, had argued against Baker’s release. Baker and his reintegration into society and his other needs,” the Board wrote in its decision. “The Review Board has taken into account the safety of the public, which is the paramount consideration, the present mental condition of Mr. Manitoba's Criminal Code Review Board said Friday that Baker was no longer a “significant threat” to public safety. Will Baker, formerly known as Vince Li, killed 22-year-old Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba on July 30, 2008.īaker, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was declared not criminally responsible because of his disorder. Notable cases involving 'not criminally responsible' defence.The man who killed and beheaded a fellow bus passenger has been granted an absolute discharge, eight years after he was found not criminally responsible for the murder. ![]()
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