Psychiatry and Justice at its best or worst?

A “News and Views with Pastor Sawatzky” Segment:

Isa 59:14, “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”

WINNIPEG — “A ruling was made Thursday in the case of a man charged with second-degree murder in one of the most gruesome crimes in Canadian history — the beheading and cannibalizing of a man on a Greyhound bus.

A Manitoba Queen’s Bench justice found Vincent Li, 40, not criminally responsible in the July 2008 stabbing, beheading and cannibalizing of 22-year-old Tim McLean.

That will spare Li from a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. He will be sent to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, in Selkirk, Man., and his long-term fate will be in the hands of doctors who will evaluate his status on a yearly basis and decide if, or when, he has been sufficiently treated and no longer poses a risk to society.

Details of the crime — which made news around the globe — emerged this week at a trial marked by tight security and fears that vigilantes might try to harm Li.

Evidence presented said Li was hearing voices in his head — which he believed came from God — telling him to eliminate “the force of evil” by attacking the sleeping McLean, psychiatrists said.

The Crown said Li stabbed the carnival worker to death, then beheaded and cannibalized the body.

That Li committed the crime was never in doubt. All that the judge was asked to determine was Li’s mental state at the time.

Both the Crown and defence argued in favour of finding Li not criminally responsible.”

Wouldn’t we love to find those people should we ever be in trouble with the law, or would we?

I am not sure who is more disturbing, the person who stabbed a man repeatedly and literally cut his head off and did other grotesque things to the victim, or the psychiatrists and lawyers who do not hold him criminally responsible.

When God said the following to the rebellious and sinful nation of Judah, He did not consult with pinheads to see whether they were criminally responsible. He looked at their transgression and judged them for wrong doing, not excuse them because of voices telling them to do wrong.

God said to Judah in Eze 7:8, “Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.”

In this case there is too much casuistry and not enough objective truth in the judgement of this CRIMINAL. The following is a partial quote from one of the doctors, "He is, as I've come to know him, a decent person…” Dr. Yaren