Christensen sentencing, Day 8: Judge expects deliberations 'will take some time'
Her mother, whom her lawyers said often is brought to tears at the sight of Christensen and has been watching the proceedings from an overflow room, joined her family in the morning before the jury entered.
But after a meeting in Shadid’s chambers with attorneys for both sides and Steve Beckett, one of the attorneys for Ms. Zhang’s family, Ms. Zhang’s mother, Lifeng Ye, didn’t return to the courtroom.
Zhidong Wang, another attorney for Ms. Zhang’s family, said she didn’t watch from the main courtroom to avoid any issues that could lead the defense to raise objections.
“Choking someone for 10 minutes is torture,” he said. Stabbing someone in the neck is “the definition of torture. This is the definition of serious physical abuse.”
Decapitating her is “the definition of heinous,” Nelson said. “This is the definition of depraved.”
He argued that the forensic evidence supports Christensen’s claims, with Ms. Zhang’s DNA found on his bed and in a bloodstain on a tack strip and under the carpet.
“How much blood must there have been to soak into the tack strip through the carpet?” Nelson asked. (first reference I have seen to qty of blood)
The jury will fill out a special verdict form, marking which of the aggravating factors were proven beyond a reasonable doubt and how many jurors found which of the mitigating factors were proven by a preponderance of the evidence.
