Luka Magnotta has admitted he committed the acts underlying five criminal offences for which he has been charged, however he has pleaded not guilty and his defence will be based on mental illness. The victim in the case was Lin Jun, a computer engineering study at Concordia University in Montreal.
The case made headlines around the world in May 2012, when police entered a Montreal apartment and found a torso in a suitcase. Body parts had been mailed to politicians, two schools and others were found in a Montreal park.
An international manhunt ensued. Magnotta was arrested at an internet café in June 2012 and returned to Canada for trial by jury.
Jurors must decide whether murder was pre-meditated
He is charged with first-degree murder, committing an indignity to a body, publishing obscene material, criminally harassing the prime minister and other members of Parliament and mailing obscene and indecent material.
The Crown will no longer need to prove the facts of the case, but it will have to convince the jury that the murder was premeditated and that Magnotta should be held criminally responsible.
If he is found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder, it would be up to authorities to determine his future. In such cases in Canada, perpetrators can be discharged if they do not pose a threat to public safety, they may get a conditional discharge or be detained in a hospital.
The Canadian government has recently passed amendments to the law which make it more difficult for such people to be released from custody.
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