CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) – The man accused of kidnapping Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang has dropped his mental health defense strategy.
The News-Gazette reports a decision from Brendt Christensen’s legal team was filed in court Friday. The filing gave an official notice of his legal team’s change of course but did not provide a specific reason. His lawyers did say they let prosecutors know about the decision “as soon as possible and explained that Mr. Christensen will not be speaking to the government’s mental health experts next week”.
Christensen, who was charged with kidnapping resulting in death after Zhang disappeared in June 2017, was going to start mental health exams Monday. His defense team was planning to use the mental health line of defense to try and avoid Christensen getting the death penalty if convicted.
The newspaper says U.S. District Judge James Shadid had just denied restrictions Christensen’s legal team wanted to place on mental health experts from the government. One of those restrictions would have kept those experts from asking Christensen about the facts of the crimes he’s accused of committing.
Steve Beckett, an Urbana attorney who represents the Zhang family, told The News-Gazette he found the decision to move away from a mental health defense “very puzzling”.
Christensen’s trial is set to start in June.
