章莹颖案凶手被判终身监禁
7月18日下午，美国伊利诺伊州中部地区联邦法院宣布：2017年绑架和谋杀中国访问学者章莹颖的布伦特·克里斯滕森被判处终身监禁且不得假释。
章莹颖父亲章荣高发表了声明，表示不赞同但接受判决结果。“尽管我们不同意这样的结果，我们可以接受罪犯将在监狱里度过余生，这将在一定意义上弥补我们的创伤。我们希望他在监狱里面的每一天都感受到我们失去莹颖所感受到的痛苦。”此外，他还表示要求被告无条件地告知莹颖遗体的下落。
A former doctoral student has been spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison in Illinois for kidnapping and killing of a 26-year-old scholar from China.
伊利诺伊州一名前博士生因绑架并杀害一名26岁的中国学者被判处终身监禁，免于死刑。
Jurors deliberated for eight hours over two days at the court in Peoria before announcing they were deadlocked on whether 30-year-old Brendt Christensen should be put to death for killing Yingying Zhang.
在皮奥里亚的法庭上，陪审员们在两天的时间里商议了8个小时，之后宣布他们在30岁的布伦特·克里斯滕森是否应该因杀害章莹颖而被判处死刑的问题上陷入僵局。
Their decision means he will receive a sentence of life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
陪审团的决定意味着克里斯滕森将被判终身监禁，不得假释。
The jury took less than 90 minutes to convict Christensen last month.
上个月，陪审团用了不到90分钟的时间就判定克里斯滕森有罪。
Prosecutors called for the death penalty, which Zhang’s family also supported, but a jury decision on that had to be unanimous.
检方要求判处克里斯滕森死刑，章莹颖的家人也支持这一主张，但陪审团必须对此达成一致。
Christensen lowered his head and smiled at his mother when he heard that his life would be spared.
当克里斯滕森听说他将被免于死刑时，他低下头，对着母亲微笑了一下。
Zhang’s parents, who travelled from China to attend the trial, pleaded with Christensen to reveal what he did with their daughter’s remains so that they can be taken back to their home country. Prosecutors indicated in court filings that Christensen may have destroyed Zhang’s body.
章莹颖的父母从中国赶来参加庭审，他们要求克里斯滕森透露他们女儿遗体的下落，以便将之带回祖国。检察官在法庭文件中指出，克里斯滕森可能已经毁灭了章莹颖的尸体。
Speaking through an interpreter, her father, Ronggao Zhang, said: “If you have any humanity left in your soul, please end our torment. Please let us bring Yingying home.”
章莹颖的父亲章荣高通过翻译说：“如果你的灵魂中还残存一丝人性，请不要再折磨我们。请让我们带莹颖回家。”
Among the most poignant testimony during the penalty phase was from Zhang’s mother, Lifeng Ye. She told jurors how the family was devastated by the loss of her beloved daughter, who had aspired to become a professor and to help her working class family financially.
在庭审阶段，章莹颖的母亲叶丽凤的证词最让人心酸。她告诉陪审员，她深爱的女儿离世让全家遭受了沉重的打击。她的女儿曾立志成为一名教授，并在经济上帮助这个工薪家庭。
“How am I supposed to carry on living?” she said in testimony by video. “I really don’t know how to carry on.”
她在视频证词中说：“我该怎么活下去？我真的不知道怎么活。”
She said Christensen dashed the dreams of Zhang, who was doing post-graduate research in agricultural science at the University of Illinois, and those of her family. Yingying was killed months before she had planned to get married.
她说，克里斯滕森粉碎了章莹颖和她家人的梦想。当时来自中国的研究生章莹颖正在伊利诺伊大学从事农业科学的研究，但她在计划结婚前几个月被杀害了。
“My daughter did not get to wear a wedding dress,” Lifeng Ye said. “I really wanted to be a grandma.”
叶丽凤说：“我女儿还没有穿上婚纱，我真的很想当外婆。”
Christensen’s parents took the witness stand, too, and appealed to jurors to spare their son’s life. Both said they loved him unconditionally.
克里斯滕森的父母也走上证人席，请求陪审员不要同意判处儿子死刑。两人均表示他们无条件地爱他。
Michael Christensen said the thought of his son being executed was unbearable, prompting Brendt Christensen to break down crying in a rare display of emotion.
迈克尔·克里斯滕森说，他无法忍受儿子被处决，这番话使得极少表露情感的布伦特·克里斯滕森哭了起来。
Ellen Williams, his mother, told jurors that Christensen’s crime was “horrible” and that she thinks about Zhang’s family “at least five times a day and how horrible this must be for them”. She said her son was extremely bright, kind and considerate.
他的母亲艾伦·威廉姆斯告诉陪审员，克里斯滕森的罪行是“可怕的”，她每天“至少要想到章莹颖的家人五次，这对他们来说是多么可怕”。她说她的儿子非常聪明、善良和体贴。
Brendt Christensen was raised in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He began his studies in Champaign at the University of Illinois’s prestigious doctoral program in physics in 2013.
布伦特·克里斯滕森在威斯康辛州的史蒂文斯角长大。2013年，他开始在伊利诺伊大学香槟分校攻读物理学博士学位。
Despite his academic achievements, Christensen had suffered mental health problems for years, the defence said, and had tried to get help in dealing with homicidal fantasies in the months before killing Zhang.
辩方称，尽管克里斯滕森在学术上取得了成就，但他多年来一直遭受精神健康问题的困扰，在杀死章莹颖之前的几个月里，他曾试图在应对杀人幻想方面寻求帮助。
