[Newsbot]

Title: Greyhound bus killer found not criminally responsible
Category: Law & Order
Posted By: TattoodGirl
Date: 2009-03-05 08:25:05
Canadian

[martin14]

So who gets to babysit him for the rest of his life to be sure he takes his meds ?

There should be a mandatory minimum stay in the hospital at least.

[DerbyX]

The people from the sentencing circle.

[uwish]

The reason I don't buy this decision is simple:

This guy was diagnosed with Schizophrenia LONG BEFORE this happened. He CHOSE not to get more treatment. From that point on he IS RESPONSIBLE for his actions as he is well aware of his condition.

If he didn't know he was suffering from mental illness up to this point, I would accept this decision but, with this being well known to him. I simply can not support it.

[Heavy_Metal]

I agree...this may be a stretch but there should be a tracking system for medication used to treat dangerous mental illness, and if a perscription is not filled out or picked up, someone should go to the house to check on the patient.

[Akhenaten]

First: You can blame the rigid philosophy of psychiatry and their dependence and blind faith in the idea that every mental disorder can either be cured or controlled with a pill. Politicians and beaurocrats love this philosophy as well since it projects the idea that we can do without incarcerating the patients, and that saves money. Of course no one wants to tackle the reality of what happens when patients forget or refuse to take their medication.

Second: no doubt the guy is 'crazy' but that doesn't mean he didn't know what he did was wrong. He stated as much both when he was arrested and upon his first court date.

Bottom line: How has the justice/legal system assured the people it works for (you and I) that we'll be protected from this in the future? How long will it be before someone else is sitting beside this man on a bus, at a bus stop, on the street, whatever, unknowingly?

[kenmore]

uwish uwish:

The reason I don't buy this decision is simple:

This guy was diagnosed with Schizophrenia LONG BEFORE this happened. He CHOSE not to get more treatment. From that point on he IS RESPONSIBLE for his actions as he is well aware of his condition.

If he didn't know he was suffering from mental illness up to this point, I would accept this decision but, with this being well known to him. I simply can not support it.

The point here is you need more education on mental illness. People with shcizophrenia do not think and have poor judgement into their illness. They have no insight into their illness and many believe there is nothing wrong with them. There is no law that enforces them ( or anyone else) to accept treatment. Auditory hallucinations are common with schizophrenics and command hallucinations are very real to them. You saying he was aware of his illness is not an accurate statement.
I agree people with mental illness should be hospitalized in a forensic unit of a MHS facility and kept there until they can be rehablitated and return to the community with appropriate community follow up.. I suggest you get a good text on mental illness and research the various pathologies. Then you might not be so off the cuff judgemental.

[DerbyX]

A more accurate solution would be for routine urine and/or blood tests to monitor drug levels. We do such tests under Theraputic Drug Monitoring to let physicians know how their patients are doing.

[Akhenaten]

"People with shcizophrenia do not think and have poor judgement into their illness. "

Then why are they entrusted with their own treatment? I know a schizophrenic who stopped taking his meds because ‘the Voice’ told him to and then one night he cut off his balls with a kitchen knife. If he was being watched/institutionalized this wouldn’t have happened.

100% true story.

"I suggest you get a good text on mental illness and research the various pathologies. "

That's what we counted on the doctors for the first time he was in a psych ward for 4 days. They already released him and judged him a non-threat.

[hurley_108]

$1:

The psychiatrists testified Li fit the criteria as someone who was not criminally responsible for their actions due to mental illness.

That means he will be sent to a provincial psychiatric facility rather than to prison. 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.

This is, actually, more than we can do with sane murderers. To lock them up indefinitely requires dangerous offender status, IIRC. Li may never be released, even without a guilty verdict.

[uwish]

The point here Kenmore is you need to stop stroking every schcizo with the same brush. Not all have 'no insight into their illness'

I know a few of them, and yes medication does work wonders when the dosage is figured out. Does it work for ALL ..no and I never said it did.

I also never claimed that he wasn't confused after the incident but he sure knew he was a schcizophrenic! He is aware of his illness.

[romanP]

uwish uwish:

The reason I don't buy this decision is simple:

This guy was diagnosed with Schizophrenia LONG BEFORE this happened. He CHOSE not to get more treatment. From that point on he IS RESPONSIBLE for his actions as he is well aware of his condition.

You don't know the first thing about schizophenia if you think his choosing to go off his meds makes him criminally responsible. This type of mental disorder can lead to the people who live with it making very poor decisions because of the paranoid machinations going on inside their head. Meds can help, but they aren't necessarily going to make the problem go away.

I have an schizophrenic uncle who, despite being on medication, was still abusive toward my aunt, constantly taking her money to feed his addiction to cigarettes and coffee. Eventually, he went off his meds and started hitting her. I can't tell you the reasons why he did that, but I can tell you that he is a somewhat paranoid individual who didn't like spending much time in a crowded room full of people that cared about him. The last time I saw him, he looked like he had been living on the street for a few weeks, and I barely recognised him.

[uwish]

DerbyX DerbyX:

A more accurate solution would be for routine urine and/or blood tests to monitor drug levels. We do such tests under Theraputic Drug Monitoring to let physicians know how their patients are doing.

[uwish]

Akhenaten Akhenaten:

"People with shcizophrenia do not think and have poor judgement into their illness. "

Then why are they entrusted with their own treatment? I know a schizophrenic who stopped taking his meds because ‘the Voice’ told him to and then one night he cut off his balls with a kitchen knife. If he was being watched/institutionalized this wouldn’t have happened.

100% true story.

"I suggest you get a good text on mental illness and research the various pathologies. "

That's what we counted on the doctors for the first time he was in a psych ward for 4 days. They already released him and judged him a non-threat.

I was about to make a similar comment however, you beat me to it

[ziggy]

DerbyX DerbyX:

A more accurate solution would be for routine urine and/or blood tests to monitor drug levels. We do such tests under Theraputic Drug Monitoring to let physicians know how their patients are doing.

Lot's of places test.