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Free to be hungry on a Greyhound again? it could happen.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Beef03, Mar 3, 2009.

  1. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    I'm sure most of us remember the brutal slaying on a Greyhound bus from a few months ago where the guy snapped, and unprovoked, started to stab a guy in his sleep, eventually cutting his head off and then ate little bits of him.

    The trial is supposed to start today I guess, and surprise, surprise, his lawyers are pulling the whole mental defect card. I know, I was astonished to [/BLUEFONT].

    Heres the thing, if the judge agrees (For those south of the border, up here the defendant has the choice of trial by jury or judge, Vince Li and his lawyers chose judge), he will go to a mental health facility and once deemed rehabilitated will be released without a criminal record.

    So coming to a Greyhound near you . . .

    well here's the link.

    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090301/national/bus_beheading_trial_2
     
  2. Of course, he'll never be released.
    See Charlie Manson's Parole.
     
  3. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    Different countries, different rules/standards.

    Up here they have the dangerous offender's act which I believe is what's going to keep Paul Bernardo behind bars for the rest of his natural life.

    He was also not a mental defect case.

    Not saying he is going to be released tomorrow, or if the defence will even work -- there's still that thing called a trial that has to take place -- but there is still the chance of it happening, and not only being released when he's done at the medical institution, but being released without a criminal record. The mother sounds like she thinks it is a foregone conclusion.
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    It is Canuckistan, though.
    Karla Homolka was released, this guy can be released too
     
  5. pseudo

    pseudo Well-Known Member

    If you can find it, read a delightful little book called "No Longer Any Danger," about one George Fitzsimmons. Killed his parents in 1969 in Buffalo, was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent a grand total of 34 months in a state mental hospital before being released for the reason cited in the title. They were wrong, of course. He moved in with his elderly aunt and uncle down here in Roulette, Pa., then stabbed them to death less than a year after his release.

    (An interesting aside: F. Lee Bailey defended Fitzsimmons in the later trial, but lost to Potter County D.A. Harold Fink.)

    Not saying that I don't trust our mental health system, but ... yeah. At least Manson does have the murder conviction on his record.
     
  6. Pancamo

    Pancamo Active Member

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29530465/


    Mentally ill and not responsible.
     
  7. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    So if I want to kill someone, I can take him or her to Canada, do as I wish, and as long as I put the tongue in my pocket and have a bite to eat, I won't go to jail?

    Awesome.
     
  8. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    What surprised me was both the defense and the prosecution were arguing for the mental problems with no responsibility.
     
  9. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    As distateful as it is, she was released because of a deal with the Crown Attorney to implicate Bernardo. Not the same thing.
     
  10. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Yes, because there was no other conclusion based on the evidence.

    It's gross, it's horrible but the guy was obviously out of his freaking mind.

    And yes, he can be kept in a mental institution for the rest of his life.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090305.wli0305/BNStory/National/home


    “That does not mean that he should go free,” Justice Scurfield said in his decision. “The public needs to know that when a person is found not criminally responsible, it does not automatically follow that a person will be released into the community ... People who are found not criminally responsible but who continue to pose a danger to the community may be kept in a locked institution for the rest of their lives.”
     
  11. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Nobody thought Nathan Leopold would ever get out, either.
     
  12. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Buck, I'm not sure why that's relevant to this particular case
     
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