(AP) – A federal jury that convicted a former University of Illinois doctoral student of kidnapping, torturing and killing a young scholar from China now must decide if Brendt Christensen should be put to death.
While the state of Illinois, where she was killed, does not have the death penalty, the case was brought under federal law, which does allow capital punishment.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on June 24 after deliberating for less than 90 minutes, in part, because the 30-year-old Christensen’s own lawyers told jurors from the outset that he did kill 26-year-old Yingying Zhang, saying their sole objective was to persuade jurors to spare his life.
The penalty phase, which is set to start Monday, is sure to be more contentious and more emotionally grueling.
