Zhang Yingying's mother Ye Lifeng (C) is seen at a press conference after sentencing in Peoria, Illinois, the United States, July 18, 2019. Brendt Christensen, the kidnapper and killer of Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying in 2017, was sentenced on Thursday to life imprisonment without possibility of release, Judge James Shadid announced the verdict in a federal court of Peoria in the U.S. state of Illinois, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)