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Nice tributeBeautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Friday, September 21st:
*Defense Deadline Hearing (@ ET) - IL - Yingying Zhang (26) missing on June 9, 2017 - Brendt A. Christensen (28) indicted (6/30/17) on kidnapping (Federal charge) resulting in death of Yingying and 2 counts of giving false statements to FBI. Plead not guilty; DA will seek DP.
9/21: Def. deadline to give notice of intent to offer Atkins defense; 9/28: Motion to examine Defendant if 9/21 motion is filed; 10/16: Responses to pretrial motions; 11/16: Hearing on objections to Juror questionnaire; 12/14, 17, 18 & 19: Hearing on pretrial motions & jury questions; 1/4/19: Submission of proposed jury questionnaire; 1/11: Jury questionnaire mailed; 1/18: Objections to jury instructions; 2/1: Conf. on jury instructions & selection; 2/8: Motion in limine; 3/1: Response to Motion in limine; 3/4: Motion to strike potential jurors; 3/11: Pretrial Conf.; 3/25: Final Pretrial Conf.; 4/2: Jury Orientation; 4/3: Jury Selection begins; 4/9: Trial begins, which should last about 5 weeks.
I miss an distinctive Asian look of this nice garden.
Brendt Christensen trial | Mental health analyses test court timeline
A request by attorneys for Christensen for more time to decide if they'll present a mental health defense illustrates what a labor-intensive process they are involved in.
In a 30-page motion filed Friday, the four-attorney defense team asked the Judge for a hearing on their request. If granted, it will likely mean the trial now set for April 3, 2019, would have to be pushed back.
Am I the only one that finds it infuriating that, here we are, A full year of this being in jail, and now they aren't sure if he's mentally fit? He's a college graduate and was a TA as well. And for my money. anyone that would abduct, torture and kill an innocent girl is insane. But makes no difference to me. You kill someone and you damm well know it's wrong. Then you pay.Period.
Drove in this morning, and the bench had been installed in YY's garden. It looks like the garden is now complete. I'll try to get some pictures later today, or tomorrow.
IT is frustrating that this will likely draw the trial start date out longer -although the judge might rule that they have enough time to complete their evaluation and they don't need more time.
I think where this is going is that they will try to use mental health as a reason to spare him the death penalty in the penalty phase of the trial. I can't see them being able to get evidence for enough serious mental illness to get a not-guilty verdict in the guilt phase. Planning, premeditation, covering up the crime by concealing/destroying of the remains -this is someone who, even if mentally ill, knows what he is doing is wrong, and is smart enough and in control enough to be able to stop himself from doing it. Mental illness might have made him WANT to do it -but he wasn't so mentally ill that he couldn't tell right from wrong, and he wasn't so mentally ill that he didn't realize what he was doing and what the result would be.
On the top of the second page of their filing asking for more time, there is this phrase included in their listing of what they were doing the first five months on the job:
......the first five of which were consumed by the capital authorization process, attempts to resolve the matter short of a death sentence, preparing and filing numerous unnecessary....
"attempts to resolve the matter short of a death sentence."
That has to be trying to reach a plea deal -we know they were having discussions about it. I think his defense team knows he did it and are unlikely going to be able to get a not-guilty verdict. So, this mental health stuff is all aimed at sparing him a death sentence.
I have read the original Supreme Court ruling for the “Atkins” defense, and it does not address mental illness but intellectual capacity. Clearly BC is mentally ill, but there is no evidence of an intellectual disability. He would have to have an IQ lower than 70 and be unable to undertake two or more “everyday skills” such as cooking, handling money, etc. Given his marriage, job status, education, and so on, there’s no way he’d qualify. You can’t blame his lawyers for trying, but Judge Bruce won’t go for it. I suppose it could just be a stall tactic to drag out his appeals and delay the ultimate execution if he is sentenced to death.