This is the end

Finally!  The Magnotta Case is over!

This morning at the Cour D'Appel Du Québec, Luka Magnotta's defence lawyer, Luc Leclair, filed a motion of abandonment of Appeal, thereby bringing to an end the final legal challenge to Magnotta's convictions and life sentence for the first-degree murder of Jun Lin.

Mr. Leclair said in a statement at the Appeal Court that his client wished to abandon the Appeal because: "He did not want to live through another Trial."

Luka Magnotta himself appeared in Court via live video conference from prison, confirming to the Appeal Court Justices that he wished to withdraw the Appeal, stating to the Court: "I've had the opportunity to reflect the consequences."

One cannot help wondering whether Mr. Leclair should not feel relieved that the Magnotta Case is finally over.  After all the prospect of the Appeal Court Justices pouring over Court transcripts in minute detail, which inevitably would also involve scrutinising Mr. Leclair's somewhat (ahem) unorthodox conduct during the Trial, would surely not have done good for his professional reputation?!

We shall never know what the Appeal Court Justices would have ruled had the Appeal gone ahead - however, I find the notion that they would have set aside Magnotta's convictions and ordered a re-Trial quite fanciful to say the least.

Crown Prosecutor, Louis Bouthillier, who also attended this morning's brief session at Québec Court of Appeal, succinctly summed up to reporters after the Appeal had been withdrawn: "This is the end."

With the Appeal dispensed with Luc Leclair announced that Luka Magnotta would now like to meet with Jun Lin's father, Diran Lin.  Mr. Leclair told reporters: "It's in the spirit of truth and reconciliation and to answer the father's questions.  He wants to explain what happened that night."

Let us hope that Mr. Lin and his family can finally gain some closure with the Appeal out of the way and from the offer of a meeting with Luka Magnotta, if indeed it takes place.

Now that this is finally over it would be all too easy to consign the Magnotta Case to the dustbin of history as the evil deeds of a monster.  But the thing is:  Luka Magnotta is a man not a monster - yes, a man who perpetrated a monstrous act beyond the comprehension of most people - but nonetheless he is just a man.  

We all have a dark side within us and, therefore, the potential to be consumed by demons from within the deepest, darkest recesses of our minds given the right circumstances.  "There can be no light without the dark ... myself I always strive to live within the light." Professor Horace Slughorn, Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince

In case you are wondering why I chucked in a Harry Potter quote, I think it is quite apt because I see Eric Newman-Luka Magnotta as a Tom Riddle-Voldemort character: the boy who made all the wrong choices.

Justice has been served upon Luka Magnotta for the crimes he perpetrated, but out of justice must come lessons to be learned from this most horrific and yet tragic of cases...lest we give rise to the next Luka Magnotta!

This is the end for me too.  This website will be maintained for the foreseeable future in the hope that through it's contents some lessons can be learned from this case!

Thank you to everybody who has followed and supported this website over the past few years.

Justice for Jun Lin!

It may have taken an agonising eight days for the Jury to reach their unanimous verdicts but, FINALLY, Luka Magnotta has been brought to justice for murdering Jun Lin and the four related charges. 

1. GUILTY - First degree murder;
2. GUILTY - Committing an indignity to a dead body;
3. GUILTY - Publishing obscene material;
4. GUILTY - Mailing obscene, indecent, immoral or scurrilous material;
5. GUILTY - Criminally harassing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several (unnamed) members of Parliament.

The conviction for first-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence under Canadian law, with a minimum tariff of 25-years imprisonment before Magnotta will be eligibile to apply for parole; subject to the outcome of any Appeal that Magnotta's legal team might lodge within the next thirty-days.

I take no personal pleasure at Magnotta's convictions, just a quiet sense of satisfaction and relief that Justice has been done - and, has been seen to have been done - in this most horrific of murder cases.

I wish to put on record my sincerest thanks and admiration to the valiant bunch of Court Reporters - in particular, Sue Montgomery of Montreal Gazette, Salimah Shivji from CBC and Shuyee Lee of CJAD800 - who have provided coverage of the Trial live on Twitter from the outset;  without whom I (and no doubt many others) would not have been able to follow this case in quite such detail.   Your sterling efforts and sheer determination allowed the truth to be disseminated as widely as possible.

Whilst I do understand the strength of emotion that Magnotta's crimes have evoked in people following this case, now is not the time for vitriolic comment much less outpourings of hatred.  Whether one agrees, or not, with the verdict and sentence handed down to Magnotta, he will now pay in the eyes of the law for the crimes he committed.

Sadly for the Lin family, Magnotta's conviction comes as cold comfort as they prepare to mark the occasion of Jun Lin's birthday in a few days time on 30th December - having never received an apology nor any signs of genuine remorse from Magnotta for killing their beloved son and brother.

The lawyer for the Lin family read to the Court a truly heartbreaking victim impact statement (click to view a PDF of Mr. Lin's statement) from Jun Lin's father, Lin Diran, on behalf of the Lin family.

I conclude with this quote from Mr. Lin's statement:

"In one night, we lost a lifetime of our hope" 

Lin Diran, 23rd December 2014

R.I.P. Jun Lin