MONTREAL – Jurors at Luka Rocco Magnotta’s murder trial will begin their third day of deliberations this morning.
Magnotta is charged with first-degree murder and four other charges in the slaying and dismemberment of Chinese engineering student Jun Lin in May 2012.
READ MORE: What does the Luka Magnotta jury have to decide?
The eight women and four men began deliberating on Tuesday, emerging on Wednesday to ask the judge whether a personality disorder is a disease of the mind from a legal standpoint.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer told them it is.
READ MORE: Magnotta jurors ask: Is a personality disorder legally a ‘disease of the mind’?
Magnotta has pleaded not guilty by way of mental disorder and is seeking to be found not criminally responsible. His lawyer says he is schizophrenic and couldn’t tell right from wrong at the time of the slaying.
Prosecutor Louis Bouthillier has argued the schizophrenia was a misdiagnosis and that his medical problems and behaviour are likely the result of personality disorders.
On the murder charge, the jury has four options: find Magnotta guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter, or find him not criminally responsible because of mental disorder.
READ MORE: Not criminally responsible myths, debunked
The judge told the jurors Monday that if they find the accused not criminally responsible, that verdict must be the same for all five charges.
Magnotta is also charged with criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament; mailing obscene and indecent material; committing an indignity to a body; and publishing obscene materials.
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