Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #7 *Arrest*

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I'm curious if what the defense is asking for is common practice or unusual in a case like this. Are they trying to nail down the prosecutions angle so as to come up with a "story"? Isn't that unethical and aren't defense lawyers supposed to stick to their client's story however dumb it may be? Attorneys are not supposed to suggest a defense to a defendant, right?
 
MomminIt said:
I'm curious if what the defense is asking for is common practice or unusual in a case like this. Are they trying to nail down the prosecutions angle so as to come up with a "story"? Isn't that unethical and aren't defense lawyers supposed to stick to their client's story however dumb it may be? Attorneys are not supposed to suggest a defense to a defendant, right?
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My question exactly. The prosecution gave over a lot of evidence and by the way could you tell us how to plan our defense. I would be curious if this the norm or way out of left field.
 
A defence attorney should advise their client, so if they think the evidence is overwhelming then they should discuss this with the accused. The accused still may decide to continue to plead not guilty.

What is the status on the Atkins defence and the defence that was supposedly going to be considered regarding the accused mother's diet while she was pregnant with him ? Wasn't that due to be discussed at the last court session?

Time wasting is all that is going on here.

AJMO
 
Shiressleuth said:
What is the status on the Atkins defence and the defence that was supposedly going to be considered regarding the accused mother's diet while she was pregnant with him ? Wasn't that due to be discussed at the last court session?

Time wasting is all that is going on here.

AJMO
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The deadline for the defense to file notice that they will offer an Atkins defense is 9/21/18
 
Ive seen in other cases where the prosecution dumped tons of material on CDs over to the defense and did not give them any help in what they would use at trial. The defense even alleged they purposely scrambled up the documents to make it more confusing to them.

Sorry I cant recall the case. May have been the Holly Bobo case as that had tons of evidence.

IMO its kind of a shady trick but it could be legal to do that. Not sure what the rules are about that. It would be good if we had a legal eagle answer about it.
 
Laughing said:
Atkins? Wait, I thought that required a measured IQ sub-normal prior to event. Alleged was in the PhD track!
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The defense doesn't have to offer this defense and may choose not to attempt to do so. That's just the deadline for filing notice of intent to do so if they choose to go down that route. If they do file a notice of intent to offer this defense, then there is a hearing on it held later.

My guess would be ( and I am by no means any kind of expert on this stuff) that including this deadline in the pre-trial schedule is a sort of pro forma thing. Something that all death penalty cases will list as a deadline. Some defense teams will decide to use it, others won't.
 
dm92 said:
The defense doesn't have to offer this defense and may choose not to attempt to do so. That's just the deadline for filing notice of intent to do so if they choose to go down that route. If they do file a notice of intent to offer this defense, then there is a hearing on it held later.

My guess would be ( and I am by no means any kind of expert on this stuff) that including this deadline in the pre-trial schedule is a sort of pro forma thing. Something that all death penalty cases will list as a deadline. Some defense teams will decide to use it, others won't.
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So the same as the prosecution are doing. Chuck it all in at the beginning so you can call on it later as needed. And they are all on the public purse anyway so they get paid regardless whether the evidence gets used or not.

It's all so hard on the victim's family.

MOO
 
I thought of this case when the case of Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa has been in the news recently.

I think the prosecutors want to use the leverage of the death penalty to get him to give up the location of the body. Plus I think her being a Chinese national influenced the feds to get involved here. I always thought that the defense had a decent argument that this case should not be in federal court; there is a presumption that a kidnapping case occurred across state lines but that presumption can be rebutted by the defense. I imagine that is what the defense wants to do since once you no longer have kidnapping or another out of state conneciton you can get the case in state court and away from the death penalty since IL does not have a death penalty in state court.

But even it being charged in federal court is odd. There are thousands of kidnappings every year and hardly any of them are in federal court; most are in state court even though theoretically many could be tried in federal court. i definitely think there's tactical resons why they chose that option.
 
Yellow said:
I thought of this case when the case of Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa has been in the news recently.

I think the prosecutors want to use the leverage of the death penalty to get him to give up the location of the body. Plus I think her being a Chinese national influenced the feds to get involved here. I always thought that the defense had a decent argument that this case should not be in federal court; there is a presumption that a kidnapping case occurred across state lines but that presumption can be rebutted by the defense. I imagine that is what the defense wants to do since once you no longer have kidnapping or another out of state conneciton you can get the case in state court and away from the death penalty since IL does not have a death penalty in state court.

But even it being charged in federal court is odd. There are thousands of kidnappings every year and hardly any of them are in federal court; most are in state court even though theoretically many could be tried in federal court. i definitely think there's tactical resons why they chose that option.
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Like the accused would have to give up the location of the body to prove it didn't occur across state lines you mean? If he did that would the death penalty be withdrawn then?
 
Niner said:
Accused kidnapper requesting jury selection records
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This is essentially a re-filing of a motion requesting Grand Jury and Petit Jury selection records filed back on January 15th before the government filed its notice that they would be seeking the death penalty. That was filed at the same time that the defense filed a bunch of other motions (motion to have the charges dropped based on the notion that it shouldn't be a federal case, motion to exclude recordings by TEB, motion to exclude evidence gathered from Christensen's apartment on the night they executed the search warrant for his car, etc...). All those motions were thrown out by Bruce before he could rule on them, because the government filed notice that they would seek the death penalty and that necessitated the entire schedule for the trial be changed. He dismissed them to wipe the slate clean, and told them they were welcome to re-file any of them based on the new trial schedule. Presumably, most or all of them will be re-filed in the coming weeks/months.

For this specific motion (again, I'm no expert), it appears that they want to look at who is on the Jury call rosters and look at their racial demographics and such. It appears they are looking for a way to get his indictment thrown out based on any irregularities in the Jury pool. I doubt that will fly. They may also be trying to set the groundwork to try and help themselves get as favorable jury as possible when it comes to the trial.
 
Hatfield said:
Ive seen in other cases where the prosecution dumped tons of material on CDs over to the defense and did not give them any help in what they would use at trial. The defense even alleged they purposely scrambled up the documents to make it more confusing to them.

Sorry I cant recall the case. May have been the Holly Bobo case as that had tons of evidence.

IMO its kind of a shady trick but it could be legal to do that. Not sure what the rules are about that. It would be good if we had a legal eagle answer about it.
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As long as the discovery is handed over, in a timely manner, it's legal.
You can't use it if you don't give it to them, so you give them more than you will actually use to ensure you can use what you need.
The prosecution I believe is required to give a list of witnesses and exhibits they plan to use. So the defense will have some idea of that.

A lawyer I know has an opinion on handing over discovery.

"I am required to provide it to them. I am not required to explain it to them, interpret it for them or understand it for them."

This guy is normally very helpful and cooperative. However when he gets a prosecutor that is a real..... he's been known to put 1,000 documents/images/screenshots/records on a disc in absolutely no particular order at all.

It's a bit easier to hide important stuff that way as well. We also make the disc not editable, so nothing can be deleted and then claimed it wasn't received.

More than once we've gone to court and the Prosecutor has whined he didn't have something, that the defense had never turned it over. So the defense attorney pulls out his table of contents for the discovery disc and says "your honor, it's #365 on the disc we gave the state 96 days ago."

This again though, is with unreasonable and irrational prosecutors. The majority are just fine and easy to work with and it's all good.
 
Lawyer of suspect in Yingying Zhang's murder asks if President Donald Trump spoke with China regarding incident

Updated: Jul 29, 2018 10:18 PM FDT CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - A suspect in the 2017 kidnapping and slaying of a University of Illinois scholar from China wants to know if President Donald Trump spoke to Chinese officials about the case when he visited China in November.

The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that prosecutors revealed in a federal-court filing Friday that Brendt Christensen's lawyers have made that request.

Prosecutors say the defense contends such discussions between Trump and Chinese officials could have influenced the Justice Department's January decision to seek the death penalty for Christensen.

Prosecutors call that contention a "far-flung theory" and add the defense isn't entitled to government communications.
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Once again, throwing everything and the kitchen sink on the wall to see if something sticks.

They are suggesting that Sessions acted arbitrarily in deciding to seek the death penalty -that he didn't decide to seek it based on the circumstances of the case, but rather, that the Chinese asked Trump to seek the death penalty, and Trump ordered Sessions to seek it no matter what the facts of the case are.

Once again, I am no expert on these things, but this will likely go nowhere either......

Niner said:
Lawyer of suspect in Yingying Zhang's murder asks if President Donald Trump spoke with China regarding incident
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