Furthermore, he was convicted on two additional counts of lying to the FBI, which netted him two 5-year sentences, which would run consecutively with the life sentence. Christensen was accused of saying on tape: Shes gone. The investigators said that even with the information provided by Christensen, the recovery of Zhangs body will be tough. She was the first in her family to graduate from college in 2013 and to go on to finish a master's degree in 2016 in the field of agricultural sciences at . Torture during detention is commonplace in China. Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese scholar, traveled to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in April 2017 to pursue research in agriculture. U. of I. Christensen is still in a downstate jail, awaiting assignment to a federal penitentiary where he will spend the rest of his life. Three months before he kidnapped, raped, and murdered Yingying, Christensen had sought help at the universitys counseling center, where he admitted to suicidal and homicidal ideations. She clutches the mic. On June 9, 2017, Yingying had left to catch a bus to go view an apartment to rent and was never seen alive again. First published on August 7, 2019 / 6:12 PM. In the just-unsealed documents was the story of a woman who claimed Christensen choked and sexually assaulted her sometime in 2012 or 2013. While the countrys Criminal Procedure Law forbids extorting confessions or collecting evidence by illegal means, the regulations contain many loopholes and are poorly enforced. Im one year older than Yingying. They have since divorced. She was even decapitated. Several lamented that while foreigners in China are showered with privileges, Chinese people overseas endure second-class status. Highly Influential Citations 1. 37. Later, in the other interview, authorities extracted an admission from Christensen that Zhang had been in his car, prompting the surveillance, according to the affidavit. Zhang's family said they believe the best thing to do at this point is allow federal, state, and local authorities to determine the feasibility of recovering her body. My mother who lives in China believes that criminal suspects should be tortured till they confess, my 2017 self wrote, that innocent until proven guilty is a frightening flaw of the U.S. justice system., The post concluded with a hashtag, #help., I read the words now and am startled by the casual cruelty. But he can be interrogated day and night until he confesses.. Born 12/21/1990, she grew up in the Jianyang District, Nanping City, Fujian Province, China. Federal prosecutors have said Christensen posed as an undercover officer to lure Zhang, 26, into his car on June 9, 2017. I pretended that our discussion was an academic exercise because I could not bear the thought that in the fragile mind of my mother, who had raised me as a young widow, Yingying was me and I was her. My friends suggest that I was drugged. However, on June 29, 2017, Christensen was captured on audio recording while under law enforcement surveillance explaining how he kidnapped Zhang. The backdrop to her stage features a spiraling pattern in green, yellow, and white: a clock turned upside down. Chemistry and biochemistry instructors must help students to develop the ability to visualize and manipulate 3D biomolecular structures and critically analyze them and their relationship to their functions. It doesnt reveal whom Christensen was allegedly speaking with at the time. According to this unsealed motion, he was placed on suicide watch and isolated from the general population for several months. The only logical explanation, as far as I can tell, is that the jurors were only thinking about violence outside prison, whether Christensen would be able to commit it himself (impossible) or persuade someone on the outside to (unlikely). Zhang was remembered as intelligent and extroverted. Her body has never been found. Yet historically, the Middle Kingdom was not any more punitive than its Western counterparts, and recent surveys show a two-thirds support rate for the death penalty in China, roughly the same as those from the U.S. over the same time period. Classification Endangered Missing. The same power structures undergird the institutions tasked with holding her killer accountable. Determined to find a closure to the case, authorities decided to turn to CCTVs as a last-ditch effort to locate her. Verified email at umn.edu. Her phone was disabled moments later. When she did not turn up on time for the lease signing, the agent sent her a text which went unanswered. Publications. Former US doctoral student Brendt Christensen, 29, has been found guilty of the violent abduction and slaying of Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang in 2017. Yingying ZHANG | Cited by 11,350 | of Tsinghua University, Beijing (TH) | Read 163 publications | Contact Yingying ZHANG Race Asian. I also recommend this Washington Post article, which links to a partial transcript of the trial. Brendt Christensen, 30, kidnapped, tortured and killed U of I scholar Yingying Zhang in 2018. We share the same feelings. The answer is no. But the Zhang family understands that the authorities are still considering an attempt to locate and recover Yingyings remains.. 10. The case is being featured on 20/20 on November 15, 2019. Most of them would not have known the context behind my post. Christensen allegedly claimed that he believed he made a wrong turn because the female became panicked. He initially claimed that he then let the female out of the vehicle in a residential area a few blocks away from where he picked her up. "There is nothing in the world that we want more than to find our daughter and bring . ABC 20/20 brings into focus the kidnapping and murder of a Chinese scholar named Yingying Zhang who went missing on 9 June 2017. CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team on Friday obtained never-before-heard information in case of murdered University of Illinois Chinese scholar Ying Ying Zhang. One popular response claimed that the situation would have been better had Yingying been Black, Hispanic, or Muslim as these minority groups wield more political power in the U.S. than Asians, especially in a blue state like Illinois. Christensen lured Zhang into his car at a bus stop on campus posing as a police officer with the . After his conviction and trial, the fate of Yingying Zhangs body came to light. Friday the I-Team reported information that government and defense attorneys both wanted kept quiet during the trial. Brendt Christensen, 30, kidnapped, tortured and killed U of I scholar Yingying Zhang in 2018. Jul 2021; Xu Junhao; Yingying Zhang . With trucks taking their loads to landfills across the city, authorities figured that her remains might have been spread around several landfills by the time Brendt was convicted. He was recorded confessing to killing her and has an online history at FetLife re . Initially, during interrogations, Brendt claimed to have mixed up the dates and denied meeting any Asians. Some documents remain sealed, including Christensen's medical and mental health records, and those of his entire family. Publications 10. h-index 3. After a mistrial, Hernandez, 56, was convicted at a second trial in 2017. Police continue search for missing person, We are releasing this video as we continue our search for Yingying Zhang, missing since Friday, June 9. At 1:39 p.m., she sent a text message from her cell phone to a manager of a different apartment complex in Urbana, Illinois, where she intended to sign a lease. Photo: Stephen Haas/The News-Gazette via AP. Ive never felt as acutely aware of my identity as a Chinese woman in the U.S. My body is a constant reminder of the many ways society renders it vulnerable. A prosecutor told the court on July 5, 2017, that Christensen was recorded at a rally for Zhang by authorities and explained the characteristics of his ideal victim and, according to CNN, pointed out those in the crowd who matched them at a vigil he attended for the missing woman. The person helping authorities record Christensen was his then-girlfriend Terra Bullis. For the closing statement at the penalty phase of the trial, Christensens defense presented a 72-page powerpoint on why his life should be spared. Co-Author. The affidavit provides a detailed accounting of the last moments Zhang is seen. Steve Beckett, Zhangs family lawyer, Yingyings father, Ronggao ZhangIf, upon hearing this, later, In addition to this, a memorial stone with Zhangs name was placed on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Follow Author. I laugh. So let me just say here at the outset, it will be startling for many of you to hear Brendt Christensen killed Yingying.. My mind had filled in the rest of the plot. People line up outside the federal courthouse for the first appearance of Brendt Christensen on July 3, 2017. Beyond the immediacy of war, when is a state justified to kill? That was the last anyone ever heard or saw from Zhang. The remains of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese scholar at University of Illinois who was murdered in 2017, could be in a landfill in central Illinois, according to multiple reports, though her body has still not been found, authorities say. However, even with massive searches and attractive cash rewards announced, the few leads the police got led to nothing. Brendt Christensen, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in Yingying Zhangs murder, said he put her body in three separate trash bags and threw them in a dumpster. Growing up, she had a loving family; Her . For those opposed to the death penalty, is replacing the needle with a cage the only option? Court records that had been sealed during the trial of Brendt Christensen, who was convicted in her death, were just turned over to the I-Team. Audio and video recordings were played for a federal jury in the murder-kidnapping trial of Brendt Christensen on Friday --- including a recording of Christensen's chilling account of how he kidnapped and murdered Yingying Zhang, a promising young environmental engineer from China in June 2017. The heart of this question is not about measuring the harms of specific conduct but mapping the contours of state authority. In 1988, Democratic nominee for president Michael Dukakis would see his candidacy doomed as he answered no to this debate question: If Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer? He lost to George H. W. Bush, whose team ran a series of attack ads, using the likeness of one Black criminal to stoke racial fear. The issues of racism, misogyny, and mental health crises in the sciences and in graduate school did not start with Christensen and have not vanished with his incarceration. She was 26. During the eight-and-a-half hours of deliberations, they asked the judge to clarify this question on the special verdict form: By whether Christensen is likely to commit more acts of violence, did it mean IN PRISON? And thus, even though they said that the FBI is probably looking into it, they did state that it would be quite challenging a process. On the right, a strapped gurney. 15. Yingyings disappearance quickly made headlines on both sides of the Pacific. I work in in the Team for Economic Evaluation and Health Technology Assessment (TEEHTA). In one recording, Christensen is accused of saying that Zhang fought him, and that he took her back to his apartment and held her there against her will last month, CNN reported. A journalism student at Northwestern University at the time of Yingyings disappearance, Shi had assisted in the search efforts and witnessed the familys pain from the very beginning. conference about Yingying Zhang's body at Steve Beckett's . With the defense already admitting that Brendt killed Zhang, the jury did not take long to find him guilty of the crime. However, a few precise details matched Brendts Saturn Astra to the one seen on CCTV. Its loss can never be repaid. Yingying Zhang was known as a compassionate, talented, joyous, and intelligent woman. Zhang family attorney Steve Beckett said, based on information provided by federal prosecutors and attorneys for convicted killer Brendt Christensen, her body likely was taken to a landfill near Danville, Illinois, after Christensen placed her remains in three garbage bags and tossed them in a dumpster. Western critics point to this as another example of the countrys abysmal human rights record, while Chinese officials and prominent academics claim that the legitimacy of capital punishment is ingrained in Chinese tradition and endorsed by its people. (. While a teenager in China, I had many fraught conversations with my mother about who should run errands after dark. However, he soon broke down and told authorities that he had picked up an Asian girl, but she was not in his car for a long time. As the information was provided under immunity, prosecutors were not able to use or communicate that information to anyoneincluding her familyduring the criminal trial, according to a statement from the Zhang family released on Wednesday morning. Yangyang Cheng is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center and a particle physicist. After this, he allegedly disposed her personal items, around the Champaign-Urbana area. He was convicted two years later. He even displayed a badge. She called Christensen a demon. The song is Avril Lavignes Complicated. If I look back on the early aughts, when life revolved around school and heartbreak was about boys, Avrils voice will accompany those reels of memory. An officer met with the professor and other colleagues of Zhang, who said they had not been able to contact her for several hours. HER BODY HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND. Its on the T-shirt Yingying wore in a photo shortly after arriving in the U.S. Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #11 *GUILTY* Thread starter liltexans; Start date Jul 2, 2017; . There was a trial, but it was more about whether he would get the death penalty (he didnt; he got a life sentence), than it was about guilt or innocence. Today, over 140 countries have abolished the death penalty by law or in practiceat times against popular support for retentionincluding every country in Europe with the exception of Belarus and nearly half of the countries in Africa. In fact, the details of how Zhang died, which came out during trial, were awful. At the time of my disagreement with my mother, a former Ph.D. candidate in physics at the same university had been apprehended and charged with the kidnapping and death of Yingying. From Yangtze to Mars: The Fiery History of Chinas Space Program, The US Is Building Walls Around Science, and Were All Poorer for It. My friends meant well. A grief stricken Lifeng Ye, second from right, the mother of slain University of Illinois scholar Yingying Zhang, is supported by a friend Lin Guiping and Yingying's brother Zhengyang Zhang, right . A minute later she gets in the car and it drives off. Penculikan dan pembunuhan Yingying Zhang terjadi di Urbana, Illinois, Amerika Serikat pada tanggal 9 Juni 2017 ketika Zhang, seorang sarjana tamu di Universitas Illinois Urbana-Champaign, diculik oleh Brendt Allen Christensen, seorang warga kota Champaign dan alumni jurusan fisika di universitas yang sama. But I also knew the real point of tension between us in relation to this case had nothing to do with criminal procedure. Earlier this week, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created an endowment, called Yingyings Fund, that is aimed at helping international students during times of hardship, when they need it most, according to the funds donation page. By the penalty phase, Christensen had already been found guilty. It's June 12, 2019, two years and three days after Yingying went missing, the first day of the jury trial in the United States v. Brendt Christensen. At present, Brendt Christensen is a federal prisoner serving his life sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman II, in Florida. Christensen's defense attorneys admitted at trial that he killed Zhang, and focused on convincing the jury to spare him from the death penalty. However, just three minutes later, the car returned, and Zhang was seen getting into it. Photos of Yingying Zhang on a tree on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana, Ill. Photo: Stephen Haas/The News-Gazette via AP, This is the last entry in Yingyings journal. 13. There were also statements from Christensen's wife at the time of the investigation in the newly unsealed records. Beckett said, so far, no search has begun at the landfill for Zhang's body. She was diagnosed with Pyothorax (causes unknown). Her life is frozen in time, while mine goes on. Two ABC news teams tell the tale of two families, tragically connected by the 2017 murder of U of I scholar Yingying Zhang. In 2013, Zhang graduated from Sun Yat-sen University at . Brendt Christensen is a former Ph.D. student researcher from Champaign who was convicted by a federal jury of kidnapping in the death of Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old University of Illinois visiting scholar from China. The following month, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The menacing images appear to come alive, two monsters manifesting the paucity of our moral imagination. For a woman, the most dangerous place is often the home. Christensen's attorneys told prosecutors that the day after he killed Zhang, Christensen placed her body in three garbage bags, and put the bags in the dumpster outside his apartment building, Beckett said. Clothing/Jewelry Description A pink and white flannel long-sleeved shirt over a white shirt, jeans, white shoes, and a . At the sentencing phase of the Christensen trial, one of the aggravating factors the jury agreed with was Yingyings particular vulnerability due to her small stature and limited ability to communicate in English. Ten thousand years of civilization and were still relying on physical size for protection. She said she was running behind, but would arrive about 2:10 p.m. At 1:35 p.m., she was observed on video boarding a public bus. Body Discovered Date Never Found. After reviewing hours of interviews and hundreds of pages of documents on him, Im haunted by a sense of familiarity. When we turn away from the face of the condemned, were in fact refusing to look at ourselves, to confront our culpability in systems of oppression, to recognize the glimmer of humanity in the darkest corner. I could not move, could barely see or speak, but I was lucid. Brendt Christensen was convicted of visiting Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang's 2017 murder. University of Minnesota. Japan Web Proxy Server*****Jiang Yuzhou was silent for a moment before saying: "You are still young, I can understand that you don't want to be bound by marriage early, but I think we are very suitable, if you want, we can not talk about marriage and talk about a relationship like other couples, you don't have to Just find someone to deal with."In his opinion, Gu Nai suddenly had a boyfriend . When the police questioned Brendt, he denied being involved in Zhangs disappearance. Red with rage, the old man exclaims: If the U.S. does not address this case properly, well kill one or two American students in China.. 2021 | Journal article DOI: 10. Prisons cannot solve the problem of prevalent harm in society and are in fact part of the problem, as they perpetuate the logics of power and domination, of segregation and dehumanization, which are also the logics of patriarchy and white supremacy. its incredibly painful, Bullis said in court, according to CBS Local. Brendt also had a masters in Physics but dropped out from his Ph.D. program and instead claimed that he was searching for employment. She told police that her husband was a psychopath and that she was 80% certain he had kidnapped and killed the Chinese scholar. In August 2019, Zhangs family was notified of the potential site of Zhangs remains by the prosecutors. Forever.. A large media contingent awaiting the start of the Yingying Zhang news conference at @Beckett6Steve's office in Urbana. 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