PEORIA, Ill. - Lawyers for a former University of Illinois student accused of killing a visiting Chinese scholar say they are abandoning their mental health defence. The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that Brendt Christensen’s attorneys had been planning to argue that the 29-year-old suffered from severe mental illness in an attempt to avoid the death penalty if he is convicted of killing Yingying Zhang. Mental health exams were scheduled to begin Monday. The attorneys gave no reason in a Friday filing.

Source: thestar April 29, 2019 16:28 UTC