UBC student not criminally responsible for attack on classmate
UBC student not criminally responsible for attack on classmate
by Kendra Mangione, CTV Vancouver , October 26, 2017:
A university student has been found not criminally responsible for an attempt to kill a classmate who lived in his dormitory last year.
Thamer Hameed Almestadi was likely suffering from a brief psychotic episode when he attacked a fellow international student, a judge said Thursday. Almestadi told police at the time that he’d believed God commanded him to sacrifice her.
The Saudi Arabian national will be detained in custody at the forensic psychiatric hospital in Chilliwack.
Almestadi was 18 when he attacked University of British Columbia student Mary Hare in October 2016, the court heard during his trial. Accused of slitting Hare’s throat and attempting to choke her, he was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
While the Saudi Arabian student pleaded not guilty to the charges, the court heard Almestadi say he “just tried to kill somebody” in a three-hour police interview played during his trial.
During the interrogation, he told Sgt. Kevin Jeffrey that he thought in the moment that he thought she was the devil. He said he’d been overwhelmed with school work and hadn’t slept the night before.
Almestadi told Jeffrey felt heartbroken during the interview which took place just hours after the crime. He also detailed the attack in the recording, and said he cut Hare’s neck in five seconds.
The victim’s voice was also heard during the trial. Hare, a U.S. student who was 19 at the time, took the stand almost exactly a year after she was attacked and spoke in detail about what happened that day.
She described Almestadi – who she’d met briefly before her assault – attacking her with a knife. She fought back against her attacker, grabbing the blade of the knife and breaking it off….
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FANTASTIC!! Lawyers can now plead their clients not guilty due to the now-valid defence that "God told me to do it."
Are you serious?! That's actually a valid defense for being temporarily insane. Comment removed for skirting the CoC [ph]
I normally don't use Wikipedia but to save time
What perhaps he doesn't (and you don't) know is that if he is found not guilty due to insanity is that he takes a very big chance of being locked up in a mental hospital for the rest of his life due to the fact that he could be a danger to society.
That's irrelevant, my argument is about the fact that "God told me to do it" has ALWAYS been a valid and legal defense
Then Muslims who misinterpret the Quran (the word of Allah as delivered to Muhammad by Gabriel) as ISIS does will be able to plead that God told them to do it and have their murder charges dismissed.
Dude.....like I said Comment removed for CoC violation [ph] get in the way of your common sense!
They had to let him off. They can't convict middle easterners for fear of making other middle easterners and their leaders angry with them.