The "Murder Case of a Chinese Engineer in Silicon Valley" that attracted the attention of netizens is here**Chen Liren finally appeared in court on February 9 local time after not attending the trial five times
This point in time coincides with the Chinese New Year, andAfter several setbacks, the victim's parents finally got a visa to go to the United States
However, it can be under the dual effect of grief and psychological blowsBecause they didn't want to see ** and their parents, they still did not appear in court even though they had arrived in the United States
It is worth mentioning that Chen Liren's parents not only found the best local defense lawyer for criminal cases, but also appeared in court.
A lotThe local Chinese ** in the United States have confirmed that Chen's father is a retired cadre in Chinalevel), whileThe victim's father is an ordinary teacher, and the old couple came to the United States to deal with their daughter's funeral affairs and relied on the help of the Tsinghua Alumni Association
Let's take a look at the details of the trial and analyze the future trend of this case.
Plead not guilty!
This trial, which began at a quarter past two in the afternoon on February 9, 2024, is the courtroomSixth arraignment。InMissed the first five timesAfter that, Chen Liren finally appeared in court for the first time.
The courtroom was packed, and people were very interested in the case.
First of all, the most striking thing is,Chen Liren appeared with a white helmet on his head
In simple terms, this helmet is:Used to prevent him from harming himself, the scientific name is "human restraint soft shell protective helmets" (human restraint soft shell protective helmets), from which it can also be deduced what kind of mental state Chen Liren is now.
He was in trialThe whole process is expressionless and his eyes are empty
Chen Liren wears a yellow prison uniform size 2X from St. Clark Prison. However, he did not sit in the dock, butStanding at the entrance of the passage of the prisoner into the courtroom
His defense lawyer has always been in front of him, and it must have been intentional, becauseTry to let Chen avoid the lens of ** and the masses
However, because Chen Liren is 1.9 meters tall, he is about a head taller than a lawyer. So the lawyer's attempt to cover up has no effect. ** Before, Chen Liren and his lawyer had a brief exchange.
There is another detail during the trial, as an engineer in Silicon Valley, Chen Liren must not have any problems communicating in English, soHe initially did not want to use the translation services provided by the Tribunal。However, on the judge's suggestion, he used the translation service and wore a simultaneous interpretation headset.
Here we also want to say in particular, looking back at the past cases, many Chinese working in the United States or students who go to school are graduates of Tsinghua University and Peking University, some of them have studied in top universities such as MIT after coming to the United States, and many of them have been living in the United States for many years.
Their English language skills are not bad in any way.
And they all applied for translation services in court, why is that?
This is because, no matter how proficient you are at listening and speaking in your daily life and work. You will still be confused by many professional terms and expressions in court. It's like you can understand every word, but you just don't know what the other person really means.
And no one repeats it for you. So, it is indeed a wise choice to hire a well-informed translator in court.
After verifying his identity and confirming the charges, Chen Liren's lawyer chose not to enter into a plea. Chen Liren's response was: plead not guilty.
After the exchange of views between the judge and the defense and prosecutionIt was announced that Chen Liren's next trial time will be at 13:30 on April 19, 2024.
The local ** also reported this matter for the first time.
After being arrested, Chen Liren was immediately sent to the hospital, and then transferred from the hospital to prison. Since then, Chen has not participated in the arraignment on five consecutive occasions on January 18, 19, 24, 26 and February 5, 2024, resulting in the postponement of the trial.
Until February 7, 2024, the Santa Clara County Department of Corrections in California reported that Chen Liren had been discharged from the hospital for the second time and is now being held in a detention center.
Unconsciously,It has been a full month since the case happened
Prosecutors have revealed that when the police arrived at the scene of the crime, they found Chen Liren kneeling on the ground motionless, his hands raised in the air, and his eyes were empty.
The once warm home can no longer wait for any owner
The officers found the body of his wife, Yu Xuanyi, in the bedroom, with serious head injuries and blood stains on the floor, walls and doors of the bedroom.
* said that Chen Liren's right hand was "extremely swollen and purple" after the incident, and there were blood stains on his clothes, legs, and arms.
Chen Liren confessed to **: "I beat my wife." He also said that these happened "yesterday".
The scene of the crime did not find any **, confirmed:"He apparently killed his wife with his bare hands, hitting her in the head repeatedly. ”
Michael Gadeberg, the prosecutor in the case, also said that if Chen pleaded not guilty, the district attorney's office was ready to continue the judicial process and prove the case to the court and jury.
For Chen's bodyIn court attire, a Chinese blogger in the United States made his own interpretationWe will excerpt it and share it with you.
He underwent red pants because he was charged with PC187**, the heaviest grade 4 in San Jose Penitentiary。The yellow coat is the exclusive color of the mentally ill, and the helmet is because he once tried to commit suicide by hitting the wall inside, so he is wearing an anti-collision helmet, and every 15 minutes, prison guards will observe his behavior in the room.
When he first entered the San Jose Prison, he should have been in red prison uniforms all over his body, and he was locked up in Unit 4C on the 4th floor, and he went out of the hut every day for 60 minutes to take a shower and pour hot water or something, and now he should be locked up in Unit 8A on the 8th floor because of his attempt to get rid of his crimes, where men and women are mentally ill, but each person has a hut, and he can go out of the hut for 60 minutes every day or every other day to take a shower, and play ** or something.
In the United States you are going to go the psychotic route after killing peopleFirst of all, four psychiatrists must be evaluated, and after unanimously agreeing that they are mentally ill, they can temporarily not be prosecuted, and then transferred to a prison-style psychiatric hospital, and then give you **, the time is long and short, and the long 10 years and 20 years will also be treated for you,Cure you until you ** or recover enough to stand trial, but not let you go.
Instead, you will be sent back to San Jose Prison for trial, if you lose the trial at that time and are sentenced to the first class, you still have to go to prison to serve your sentence, unless you are mentally ill until you die, then you don't have to go to prison to serve your sentence but you can't get out, you can only stay in the prison's psychiatric hospital for the rest of your life.
In this way, it is better to plead guilty now, be sentenced to 25 years to life, and be released on parole after 25 years in prison. “
Local prosecutors still need a lot of leads
Santa Clara County Attorney Michael Gadeberg said outside the Santa Clara Supreme Court on Jan. 26Due to HIPAA privacy regulations in the United States, he did not know the specific reason for Chen Liren's hospitalization
Still, he made the following sad statement:
This is a heartbreaking case. Mr. Chen once vowed to cherish and protect his wife. She loved him and trusted him, but he beat her to death. ”
HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was established to protect "the privacy and security of certain medical information of individuals". Personal medical information should be confidential to most people. In the U.S., there are also laws that stipulate that only certain medical information can be provided to third parties.
This is not a California law, but is federal for the entire United States.
The personal health information that a person provides to a medical institution is protected. Neither family members, friends, nor school teachers have access to this person's medical information. You can't even go to your school's health center or clinic.
This means that they can't ask you what happened to you when they call the medical institution. In addition to medical institutions, even insurance companies are regulated by the Act and are required to protect your medical information, so insurance companies cannot disclose your medical information to anyone.
No one other than a doctor has access to these records.
Not only did the prosecutor, who represented the prosecution, know Chen's mental state or any symptoms, but even the lawyer hired by the Chen family's high salary did not know.
Chen's family hired one of the best local defense lawyers, Wesley J. SchroederSchroeder), he said, he had met with Mr. Chen's father because he had been in the United States after the case, had been there for a few days, and then he had returned to China. Because of this hippa clause, he also did not know Chen's physical and mental condition.
Chen's lawyer
Many netizens and bloggers who paid attention to this case believed beforeChen Liren said that he was ill and did not appear in court five times in a row, which was the strategy of the strongest local lawyer
Now a local Chinese lawyer has expressed a different opinion, believing that this refusal to appear in court five times in a row should not be the lawyer's idea, butIt was the hospital that refused to allow Chen to participate in the trial based on the principle of being responsible for him based on his physical and psychological state, so in this case, the court had no choice
But then again, the use of "mental illness" to get away with the crime and reduce the sentence has been repeated in the United States and other countries.
Gardberg was interviewed after this time.
He said the progress of the case depends on whether Chen and his lawyer plead guilty directly or plead not guilty at the next trial, and if he does not plead guilty, the prosecution is ready to continue the next judicial process to prove the case to the court and jury.
Here's the point! Mr. Gardberg said prosecutors were still investigating the caseI hope that anyone who knows Chen Liren personally or the facts of this case will have a dialogue in order to understand his methods and motives, as well as to find out whether there are any relevant historical clues about this person.
"Judgment is an exploration of truth, and we are always open to new information," Gardberg said. ”
Mr. Gardberg said he met with Mr. Yu's family that day, but they did not appear in court. He understands their grief over the loss of their beloved daughter, and the District Prosecutor's Office will provide them with support and services as much as possible.
The lawyer said that Chen Liren's medical records have not been reviewed because he will discuss with the medical staff to see if he can authorize the lifting of some information. At this time, he is unclear about Chen's mental state.
Reject the victim's guilt theory and wait for the truth
As in previous cases, after this case, the concocted theory of victim guilt was also overwhelming.
What woman has an affair and cheats, women's domestic violence first, women hook up with seniors in the American technology industry, women cheat money and cheat feelings, there are all kinds of variety, various versions, everything.
Until yesterday, this argument appeared on Chinese platforms:
In the end, this conclusion is really breathtaking, not only criticizing gender, but also geographic.
The details of the rumors are even more laughable, and there is a ...... of "the work is arranged by this buddy".Are you the editor of Google's business in which African country? Can a husband who has a set up arrange the work?
In fact, after the death of the victim Yu Xuanyi, her friends and colleagues around her missed it.
Born in 1996, Yu Xuanyi grew up to be the top student in the college entrance examination, and after graduating from Tsinghua University in 2018, he went to the University of California to continue his studies, and in 2020, he studied for a master's degree in computer science. In addition, she has participated in various national and international programming competitions and events.
She is a member of the Women in Computing group and supports other women in the computer field. In 2019, she worked as a software development intern on Amazon's Alexa team, where she landed a full-time position. To be able to do this, one's own ability and conduct in the world must be excellent and recognized by all parties.
A year later, Yu Xuan moved to Google to participate in the optimization of intelligent assistants within the team, and also actively shared his insights on programmer platforms such as GitHub.
Why did her husband arrange a job for her!?
Under California law, there are two types of offenses.
The former is sentenced to more than 25 years in prison, while the latter is sentenced to more than 15 years。There is a considerable difference in the sentencing between the two.
The conviction of first-degree ** must satisfy the conduct of Chen Liren, who was "committed through torture", and is likely to be convicted of first-degree **.
However,As expected, their family's top team of lawyers will definitely start defending in the direction of "mental illness". This can be seen in the fact that he wears an anti-self-harm helmet.
Moreover, when the news heat is dragged down by the excuse of illness again and again, the possibility of a light sentence is even greater.
To sum up, this is only the end of the first trial, and it is too early to say anything. It is hoped that the truth will surface as soon as possible and the ins and outs of the case can be fully presented to the public. It is more hoped that justice will be served, and that such tragedies will become less and less common in the future.