December 24, 2014
An artist's sketch shows Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer instructing the jury at the murder trial for Luka Rocco Magnotta, Dec. 15, 2014 in Montreal.
Luka Magnotta (born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman) was found guilty of first degree murder in Montreal on Tuesday December 23, 2014 in the bewildering and horrific case where he killed and dismembered Concordia University student Jun Lin.
Magnotta’s counsel put forward the Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) defence as provided by section 16 of the Criminal Code of Canada. The jury was out for a nearly unprecedented 8 days of deliberation. There was clearly a lot for them to think about.
The law states that, “No person is criminally responsible for an act committed or an omission made while suffering from a mental disorder that rendered the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or omission or of knowing that it was wrong.”
Thanks to television and movies, many people think this is an easy defence put forward often and with great success. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The defence is very difficult to support. It requires psychiatric evidence and the psychiatrists who make the “NCR” assessment are very live to the possibility of manipulation by the accused. Generally the doctors look for a history of mental disorder as proven by external corroboration with previous diagnosies. Doctors hate relying on the patient’s word alone. As a result, the NCR defence is rarely on the table and even more rarely succeeds.
Obviously there is a lot of attention to the rare instances when it does work, but overall, the defence fails unless both the prosecution and counsel for the accused have confirmatory psychiatric evidence.
It is important, in the light of the Magnotta conviction, to remember that the NCR provisions of the Code exist for a legitimate reason and this conviction proves that they are not a get out of jail free card.
Lorne Goldstein is a partner at Abergel Goldstein & Partners, a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law and a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
In Ottawa the most violent criminals have a "Free Pass" from the Ottawa Police providing they are female and are assaulting a father.