A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Brendt Christensen, a former University of Illinois doctoral student, to life in prison without possibility of release for the kidnapping and killing of Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang after a jury said it was unable to reach a unanimous decision on sentencing him to death or life in prison.
当地时间18日下午，美国伊利诺伊州中区联邦法院一位联邦法官正式宣布：2017年6月谋杀中国访问学者章莹颖的凶手克里斯滕森被判处终身监禁且永不得保释。因陪审团经过一天的闭门审议后，无法就判处死刑达成一致。
The jury deliberated for roughly eight hours over two days after more than a week of testimony in the trial’s penalty phase during which they heard from Zhang’s parents and brother, as well as her fiance. Zhang’s family traveled to Peoria from their home in China for both the guilt and penalty phases of the trial.
在审判的量刑阶段，陪审团听取了章莹颖的父母、哥哥以及她的未婚夫的证词，经过一周多的时间，陪审团在两天多的时间里商议了大约8个小时。在审判的量刑和阶段，章的家人也从他们在中国的家前往Peoria。
Zhang’s father, Zhang Ronggao, called the loss of his daughter “completely unbearable,” in court last week.
章莹颖的父亲章荣高上周在法庭上称女儿的死亡“完全无法承受”。
“To tell you the truth, I do not know how to live the remainder of my life,” he said through a translator.
说实话，我不知道如何度过我的余生，”他通过翻译说。
The same jurors took less than 90 minutes to convict Christensen last month of kidnapping and killing Zhang.
同样是这些陪审员，在不到90分钟的时间里，就判定克里斯滕森上个月绑架并杀害章的罪名成立。
Prosecutors and Zhang’s family had pushed for the death penalty, but the jury’s decision on that had to be unanimous. If even one juror opposed, then the life sentence was applied.
检察官和章的家人曾要求判处死刑，但陪审团的决定必须是一致的。即使有一名陪审员反对，也会被判处无期徒刑。
Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, but Christensen was prosecuted under federal law. If he had been sentenced to death, he would have been executed by lethal injection.
伊利诺斯州在2011年废除了死刑，但克里斯滕森被联邦法律起诉。如果他被判死刑，他就会被注射死刑。
Christensen, 30, a former graduate student at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, the same school Zhang Yingying was attending, would have been the first person to be sentenced to death in a federal courthouse in Illinois since 2006, if the jury reached a unanimous verdict that he should be executed.
30岁的克里斯滕森，是前伊利诺伊大学香槟分校大学的研究生,和章莹颖同一所学校。如果陪审团就死刑达成意见一致的裁决，这将是伊利诺斯州联邦法院，自2006年以来第一个被判处死刑的。
Zhang was last seen alive on June 9, 2017, getting into Christensen’s black Saturn Astra on the University of Illinois campus after she missed a bus to an appointment. The two did not previously know each other.
章莹颖最后一次露面是在2017年6月9日，当时她错过了一辆去赴约的公共汽车，进入了克里斯滕森的Saturn Astra。两人之前并不认识。
Christensen’s lawyers admitted in June 2017 that he raped and killed the 26-year-old Zhang, and they sought life in prison rather than the death penalty.
克里斯滕森的律师在2017年6月承认，他强奸并杀害了26岁的章莹颖，他们寻求的是终身监禁，而不是死刑。
Prosecutors said Christensen raped, choked and stabbed Zhang before beating her to death with a bat and decapitating her. Christensen has never revealed what he did with Zhang’s remains.
检察官说，克里斯滕森强奸、掐死并刺伤了章，然后用球拍将她打死并斩首。克里斯滕森从未透露过他是如何处理章莹颖的遗体的。
FBI investigators testified they found her blood and DNA inside Christensen’s Champaign apartment, where the former PhD candidate said he raped, beat and decapitated her, according to a statement he made to his then-girlfriend as they attended a memorial vigil for Zhang. Christensen was unaware his girlfriend was cooperating with the FBI and wearing a wire.
美国联邦调查局调查人员作证称，根据他对当时女友的一段在章莹颖守夜仪式上的陈述，FBI在克里斯滕森位于香槟的公寓里发现了她的血液和DNA。克里斯滕森不知道他的女友正在配合联邦调查局的调查，而且身上还带着一根通话线。
The defense tried to cast doubt on the recording, noting that he also claimed he had 12 other victims, a claim the FBI hasn’t been able to corroborate. That tape was played for jurors multiple times during trial.
辩方试图对这段录音提出质疑，指出他还声称自己还有另外12名受害者，而FBI尚未能够证实这一说法。这盘录音带在庭审期间曾多次播放给陪审员听。
Prosecutors, in seeking the death penalty, presented aggravating factors such as Zhang’s killing was pre-meditated, that she died during the commission of another crime – kidnapping, and she was particularly vulnerable because of her small size and limited English-speaking ability.
在寻求判处死刑的过程中，检方提出了一些加重罪责的因素，比如章莹颖被杀是有预谋的，她是在另一起犯罪—绑架过程中死亡的，而且由于她的身材娇小和有限的英语能力，她特别容易受到伤害。
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