dm92
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- Nov 1, 2017
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I don't understand why he refused to say where Yingying Zhang's body was. Maybe now he wouldn't be a lifer...really sad for the victim's family
He wasn't smart...on the other side I'm happy he didn't do that because he got life imprisonment.
IF he can be believed (and that is a very big "IF"), then he didn't say where she was because the information wouldn't get prosecutors to spare his life by taking the death sentence off the table. Her body would be unrecoverable, and the only thing the prosecution and her family wanted from him in return for sparing his life would be a body they could take home. He didn't say anything because his lawyers also surely told him that if a jury were to find out what he did with her remains, it would only make them more likely to sentence him to death.
Christensen was always destined to spend his life in prison at a minimum. the case was not tried in Illinois state court; he was charged under Federal (United States government) law and tried in federal court. For the crime of Kidnapping Resulting in Death, US law only allows for two punishments: Life imprisonment, or execution. He could never receive a sentence less than a life sentence -nor will he ever be able to get out early, as the Federal system does not use parole.
Basically, Christensen was a coward: He didn't want to be executed. He knew he couldn't give her family the body, so they would never take the death penalty off the table. the only way to save his life would be to get a juror or two to have sympathy for him -and he knew that he'd likely get less sympathy from them if the jury were to find out what he did with her body.
In the end he was successful. His lawyers managed to get two morons to feel enough sympathy for him to spare his life. If those two knew in advance that Christensen had chopped her up and thrown her in the trash, so that her family could never take her home and bury her? No way to know what it would have done to their decision on sentencing, but it couldn't have helped him......
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