"Yingying was far more than just an international scholar. She was a devoted and loving daughter. She was the hope of her family," said U.S. Department of Justice attorney James Nelson Monday afternoon during his opening statement for the ongoing murder trial of 26-year-old Chinese visiting scholar Zhang Yingying.

This Monday the federal courthouse in Peoria, Illinois started the sentencing phase of Brendt Christensen, who was found guilty by a U.S. jury of kidnapping and killing Zhang Yingying in 2017. Revelations of the brutality in the murder case have appalled Chinese society and international students in the U.S.

Calling for the death penalty, Nelson said it was "not an ordinary crime. It was cold, calculated, cruel and months in the making." Although the death penalty was abolished in the state of Illinois in 2011, it is still available in federal cases, though it is rarely sought.

During his interview with CGTN's Dialogue program, Edward Lehman, the managing director of Lehman Lee & Xu, said that Christensen's case was "specifically brought by the prosecutors in the federal court on federal charges so that the death penalty can be instituted." However, he further introduced some statistics that "when the options are between the death penalty and life imprisonment, 64 percent have voted for life imprisonment over the death penalty."

Zhang's death also sparked heated discussion about the safety of Chinese students who are studying abroad, especially in the U.S.  About 35 percent of the more than 1 million international students enrolled at universities in the U.S. are Chinese, according to a study by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization supported by the U.S. government.

"I've heard a lot of Chinese parents who are worried that their kids could have potential risks in the U.S. and they are even considering changing their destination to a different country," said Flora Liu, CEO of an education consultancy company in China.

The young Chinese entrepreneur Gary Mao, who was born and educated in the U.S., said, "I don't see people discuss these things (risks of studying in the U.S.) in China, so if students want to go study in the U.S., they should be also aware of these potential risks."

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