Luka Magnotta’s lawyer Pierre Panaccio will have ‘unusual challenges’

Pierre Panaccio has been given the unenviable task of defending the man accused of one of the most grisly killings in Canadian history.

The well-known criminal attorney from Montreal has been tapped to defend Luka Rocco Magnotta against charges of stabbing, beheading and dismembering 33-year-old Lin Jun last month.

According to PostMedia News, Panaccio gained notoriety in 2004 for participating in the year long Hell's Angels' mega-trial, the first major test of Canada's anti-gang legislation before a jury.

While Panaccio is no stranger to high profile cases, former Paul Bernardo lawyer Anthony Bryant says this one will be difficult.

He told QMI Agency that the video allegedly showing the killing will present Panaccio with "unusual challenges."

"I can't imagine that it wouldn't be (played)," he said in an interview on Tuesday.

"I was certainly part of a case where videos played a very important role and they present unusual challenges."

[Related: Magnotta pleads not guilty; requests psych evaluation]

It's expected that Panaccio will officially request a psychiatric evaluation for Magnotta in court on Thursday.

Toronto criminal lawyer Roots Gadhia told the Sun News Network that Panaccio's most likely defence will be deeming Magnotta not criminally responsible.

"Any lawyer worth his salt will probably look at these offences as being so completely above what we would consider normal behaviour," she said.

"And the issue will be is he --at the time these offenses were committed -- was he experiencing a psychotic episode? Was there a mental disorder? Was there something that made him snap to do this?

"If the psychiatric evaluation proves that to be the case then yes it's an NCR -- a not criminally responsible judgement -- in which case rather than spending the rest of life in prison, he would be sent to a hospital and kept under evaluation until such time they found him not a danger to the public or indefinitely."

Roots added that the next step in this case -- providing "disclosure" to the accused -- could take "several months" and can occur concurrently with Magnotta's psychiatric evaluations.

In the meantime, we should all get used to hearing the name 'Pierre Panaccio.'