Innocent plea in Canada bus beheading

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, March 3 (UPI) -- The man accused of beheading a fellow Greyhound bus passenger in Manitoba, Canada, last July entered a plea of innocent in a packed Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday.

Vincent Li, 40, spoke for himself when the provincial judge asked for his plea to second-degree murder charges, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said.

Timothy McLean, a 22-year-old carnival worker, was attacked suddenly on the bus and was stabbed repeatedly with a machete. The bus driver stopped the vehicle and evacuated it and Royal Canadian Mounted Police surrounded the bus. By the time they boarded, McLean had been decapitated.

Li has spent most of the time since the attack undergoing psychiatric assessments and was reportedly cooperative, the report said.

It was widely reported by local and national media that Li's defense team will argue he was mentally ill and not criminally liable for the attack. If they succeed, a conviction would mean Li would be sent to a federal psychiatric institution and released with no criminal record when he was deemed well enough.

However, the mother of the victim, Carol deDelley, is lobbying for reforms to the federal Criminal Code to prevent convicted killers of escaping prison time or criminal records, the CBC said.