美国当地时间7月8日上午，中国访问学者章莹颖被谋杀案审判正式进入量刑阶段。嫌犯克里斯滕森是否将被判死刑成为各界关注的焦点。
量刑阶段将最后决定克里斯滕森是否被处以极刑——死刑。据悉，最终的量刑结果预计将在两周后揭晓。
6月24日下午1:00时，被告克里斯滕森3项指控罪名全部成立（1项“绑架谋杀罪”和2项“虚假陈述罪”），但这不意味着克里斯滕森就能被判处死刑。戳这里回顾《裁定！克里斯滕森绑架和谋杀章莹颖罪名成立》。
12名陪审员必须再次达成一致意见，决定是否适用死刑。如有一人持不同意见，嫌犯就将逃脱死刑判罚。据央视新闻报道，据记者现场观察，12名陪审团成员中7男5女，其中有11名白人，1名拉丁裔居民，大都在35到50岁之间。
据了解，陪审团是由随机选择加面试的方式选出，来自各行各业。由于本案涉及死刑判决，而超过半数的普通美国民众反对使用死刑，因此法官在面试此案陪审团成员时的重要标准是不得反对死刑。
自2011年起，伊利诺伊州已废除死刑，而且在此之前的11年里没有作出过死刑判决。但联邦检察官仍然可以在废除死刑的州提出死刑控告。
Illinois abolished capital punishment in 2011 and put a moratorium on the practice 11 years before that. But federal prosecutors can still seek the death penalty in states that have abolished capital punishment.
首日量刑审判共持续4个小时。嫌犯克里斯滕森出庭。嫌犯父母、章莹颖家人也出现在庭审现场。
开庭后，被告和原告首先进行开场陈述。随后双方进行举证和质证。检方呼吁陪审团判处克里斯滕森死刑，而被告律师则请求陪审团判决嫌犯终身监禁且不得假释。
美国伊利诺伊州当地媒体The News-Gazette 对量刑阶段第一天的现场情况进行了文字直播↓↓↓
控方量刑阶段列8大重判因素
检方给出多项重判的理由，指出嫌犯将受害者绑架、虐待、杀害的过程及手段异常残忍，且蓄谋已久。此外，把女儿遗体带回中国安葬是章莹颖家人最后的心愿，然而嫌犯至今不肯透露章莹颖尸体的藏匿地点。
据The News-Gazette报道，正式审判开始后，代表公诉方的美国司法部检察官詹姆斯·尼尔森从章莹颖日记的最后一行开始，展开了他的陈述。
U.S. Department of Justice attorney James Nelson gave the opening statement for the prosecution, starting with the last line from Ms. Zhang's journal.
“生命太短暂，不愿意平凡。”
"Life is too short to be ordinary."
“她无法预知自己的生命有多短暂，”尼尔森说。
"She had no way of knowing how short her life would be," he said.
章莹颖/资料图
尼尔森呼吁陪审团给予死刑判决。他说，“这不是一个常规的犯罪，而是冷酷的、谋划长达数月之久的残忍行径。”
Calling for the death penalty, Nelson said it was "not an ordinary crime. It was cold, calculated, cruel and months in the making."
尼尔森列举了8项法定加重判决因素，其中包括克里斯滕森作案早有预谋，作案手段残忍， 章莹颖英语不那么好，更愿意相信警察（注：章莹颖失踪当天，克里斯滕森自称是警察并向她出示了警徽，从而骗章莹颖上车），章莹颖身材娇小，是“理想的”受害者......
He went through the government's eight aggravating factors, including that he planned it, it was cruel, that she spoke poor English and was likely to trust a police officer, and that she was small and the ideal size of a victim.
同时，律师表示，克里斯滕森通过清理犯罪现场和藏匿被害者的遗体来阻挠调查。“让死者无法在中国故土安葬，让痛苦无止无休”（克里斯滕森至今未供述章莹颖的遗体下落。）
Also, the attorney said Christensen obstructed the investigation by cleaning the crime scene and hiding her body. "There will be no proper burial in China. There will be no closure. You will see the anguish."
律师表示，这样恶劣的罪行理应重判，要求陪审团判克里斯滕森死刑。
He said this crime "deserves an extraordinary penalty" and asked the jury to sentence Christensen to death.
辩方列54条减罪理由
而被告律师则提出了轻判的情节，如嫌犯长期对酒精和药物有依赖，且患有严重的抑郁症和焦虑症。嫌犯在2016年与时任妻子离婚后病情加重，多次在大学寻求心理及精神救助未果。
辩方给陪审团提出了54条克里斯滕森应该减轻罪行的理由，包括他酗酒的母亲、他此前没有犯罪记录，以及他在伊州大学咨询中心没有得到合理的治疗等。
They went over the defense's list of 54 mitigating factors, or reasons Christensen shouldn’t receive death penalty, which range from his alcoholic mother to no criminal history to allegedly not receiving proper care at the UI Counseling Center.
辩方由法庭指定的律师Julie Brain发表了辩护方的开案陈词。她说，克里斯滕森“会在监狱死去，孤独一人，周围只有陌生人。”
For the defense, court-appointed attorney Julie Brain gave the opening, saying Christensen "will die in prison, alone, with strangers."
“剩下的唯一问题就是他将何时死去——是在监狱中终老死去，还是以被判决死刑的方式终结生命，”她说。
"The only question that remains is when his death occurs — at the end of his natural life or at a date the government chooses," she said.
克里斯滕森/资料图
辩方律师把克里斯滕森描述成一个被精神健康问题困扰一生的人——他经常半夜惊醒、梦游，还有会导致神经衰弱的偏头痛。
She described Christensen as someone who struggled his whole life with mental health issues — night terrors, walking in his sleep, debilitating migraines.
律师表示，在伊利诺伊州大学期间也深受困扰，情况恶化。她说，克里斯滕森曾寻求过心理健康治疗，但没有得到他所需要的帮助。
But he struggled at UI, too, as the demands increased. She said he sought mental health treatment, but didn’t get the help he needed.
“犯下该罪的确是他的错，但这不是一个应该判处以死刑的案件。”他的律师表示。
While she said the crime is "his fault," "this is not a case that deserves the death penalty."
“他也不是连环杀手。”她的说法驳斥了检方此前提出的克里斯滕森声称有13名受害者的说法。（章莹颖失踪初期，FBI曾在嫌犯女友身上安装窃听装置，记录了嫌犯和女友的8次对话。克里斯滕森还在录音中称章莹颖是自己的第13个受害者。）
"He is not a serial killer," she said, refuting Christensen’s claim of 13 victims.
律师还表示，在他被监禁的两年时间内，他没有表现出任何危险迹象。她鼓励陪审员做出道德的决定，保持开放的心态，并判处他终身监禁而非死刑。
Said he's shown no signs of dangerousness in two years in jail. She encouraged jurors to make a moral decision, to keep an open mind, and to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of release.
庭审现场，受害者章莹颖的未婚夫侯霄霖讲述了他们相爱相知的故事。他们同为广州中山大学的本科生。“她聪明、勇敢、乐观，是我生命中遇到过的最好的女孩。”
The victim's fiancé, Xiaolin Hou, told the jury the couple met while undergraduates at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. "She's smart, she's brave, she's optimistic, she's the best girl I ever met," he said.
现场还播放了章莹颖朋友录制的7段视频。
她的一位朋友表示，她去美国后自己就开始担心她的安全，因为章对所有人都很好。
Lixha Fang said she worried for her friend's safety when she moved to the US because Zhang was so nice to everyone.
另一位朋友表示，第一次在宿舍见到章莹颖时，就被这个“瘦瘦的、笑容满面的女孩”吸引住了，很快成为亲密的朋友。
Another friend, Ye Cai, said when she first met Zhang in their dorm, she was struck by a "skinny, very smiley girl", and the pair soon became close friends.
7月9日，庭审第二日，章莹颖母亲叶丽凤通过录制的视频参与作证，视频中被问到女儿被害后的影响，章莹颖母亲表示：“这真的，真的很痛苦，很艰难。我们一家不知该如何继续（生活）。我不知道该如何活下去。我想看女儿穿上婚纱，她还没有穿过婚纱，我真的很想当外婆。”
Asked about the impact of her loss, her mother said, "It is really, really painful. It is really, really hard. It is so, so difficult." "Our entire family does not know how to carry on," she said. Said it was hard to go on from one day to the next.
“How am I supposed to carry on living?” her mom asked. “I really don’t know how to carry on.”
“My daughter did not get to wear a wedding dress,” she said. “I really wanted to be a grandma.”
章莹颖父亲在陈词中也表示，夫妻二人自从女儿失踪后没睡过一个好觉，他甚至无法集中注意力，前阵子还从楼梯上摔下。
Her father also finished his testimony, talking about how he and his wife have not been able to sleep well since Ms. Zhang went missing. Said he's not able to concentrate and recently fell down the stairs.
“我不知道该如何继续度过余生，莹颖是我的骄傲，也是我的全部。” 章莹颖父亲说。
"I do not know how to live the remainder of my life," he said. "Yingying ... she's my pride and also my everything."
章莹颖男友陈词并多次强调罪犯的残忍手段给章莹颖及其家人带来无尽痛苦，表示 “本想去美国做博士后，再和她一起回国结婚”，“自己人生中最重要的人被夺走了”，“我永远不会放弃寻找她”。辩方称此为不正当证词，提出无效审判请求但被法官拒绝。
Yingying Zhang’s boyfriend, Xiaolin Hou said he hoped to finish his Ph.D. and get his post-doctorate in the U.S., and then return to China with her, and that they planned to get married in October 2017.
“I will never give up hope to find her，” he said.
当天，章莹颖守夜活动当晚的录音也在法庭播放。录音中克里斯滕森笑着谈论自己如何杀害章莹颖等可怕内容。
The prosecution played many of the gruesome tapes made the evening of the campus vigil, such as when Brendt Christensen laughed while talking about how he killed Ms. Zhang.
此外，克里斯滕森在监狱中与他父母及前妻的通话录音也在法庭播放。他在电话中多次声称自己是无辜的。
They also played tapes of him in jail making calls asserting his innocence and casting doubt on the government's case against him.
章莹颖案量刑审判第三天：被告父亲出庭痛哭道歉
美国当地时间10日，章莹颖案量刑阶段的审判继续进行。克里斯滕森的父亲在法庭上被问到有什么话想对章莹颖家属说，他说：“对不起，是我儿子导致了他们的痛苦”。他的父亲还说，“我可以接受死刑判决，但不是真的被‘处死’，他还可以做出许多贡献。”
据《纽约时报》报道，30岁的克里斯滕森可能会向检方提出告知他对章莹颖的遗体做了什么作为免死交换条件。目前，章莹颖的遗体仍未找到。
The 30-year-old Christensen might testify. And in an effort to save his life, he could possibly reveal what he did with Zhang's body, which has never been found.
综合来源：中国日报微信公众号（ID：chinadailywx），央视新闻微信公众号，CGTN，The News-Gazette
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