The suspect in Zhang Yingying's case seeks to avoid death. The latest progress of Zhang Yingying's case
4hw.com.cn: the defense lawyer of the case of Chinese visiting scholar Zhang Yingying recently put forward a motion, saying that the defendant Christensen expressed his willingness to plead guilty and provide the location of Zhang Yingying's remains. In this regard, Zhang Yingying's family issued a statement saying that they had communicated with prosecutors and respected their decisions.
According to the Illinois media wttw website, the defense lawyer filed a motion to the court on the 25th, saying that Zhang Yingying's family accused Christensen of refusing to help when testifying in court. Defense lawyers said, 'this is inaccurate testimony', which will give the jury the impression that the defendant refuses to provide any help.
The defense pointed out that within six months of Christensen's arrest, he agreed to plead guilty, provide the location of the victim's remains, and was willing to accept the punishment of life imprisonment.
However, Christensen had previously revealed to his ex girlfriend that he would never tell anyone about Zhang Yingying's whereabouts. His remark was secretly recorded by his ex girlfriend as evidence for the prosecution.
According to the local media "news bulletin", the defense proposed this motion to pave the way for the next sentencing stage. The sentencing phase will begin on July 8. The prosecution will explain the reasons why the defendant should be sentenced to death, which will be refuted by the defense.
For this motion, Wang Zhidong, a lawyer representing Zhang Yingying's family, forwarded the statement of Zhang Yingying's family to China News Agency reporters on 27: according to media reports, we learned that the defendant claimed that he had intended to plead guilty and confessed to his disposal of our daughter's body. We heard this during the case. At that time, we asked the prosecution to obtain real information about the whereabouts of the body and find the body so that we could bring the body back to China. We were informed that the defendant's response to our request was that the defendant's claim would not be verified, that is, there was no guarantee that we would find the body.
The statement pointed out that we doubt the defendant's claim because he has lied many times in the past. Nothing prevented the defendant from pleading guilty. The family experienced a trial to publicly disclose the terrible details of Yingying's death.
'we have no control over this process,' the statement said. We have communicated with the prosecutors and respect their decisions.
According to media reports, so far, the prosecution has not responded to this motion. Sharon & middot, spokesman of the U.S. district attorney's office; Paul said she could not comment during the trial.