Wei Li Argumentative Essay

Wei Li, then an 18-year-old law student at University of Adelaide, murdered his mother, Emma Mae Tien, in the family’s Burnside home in 2011. Beaten with a metal pole and strangled, she was found on their living-room floor, wrapped in blood-soaked bedsheets. Li fled to China after the incident. He stayed undiscovered by authorities until 2014, working as a teacher under a fake ID and CV, but was deported back to Australia due to an expired visa, where he was required to face the murder of his mother he thought he had left behind him.
Li was first sent to the Adelaide Magistrates Court to appeal for bail. The prosecutors opposed the idea of this, alluding to the seriousness of the crime and the risk of him fleeing once more. They also outlined the course of action Li took as he escaped to the court. Li apparently tried to book a one-way flight to China, but was told they were not allowed and booked a return trip instead. There was also evidence of Li having a partner in China in his phone records, which the prosecution said increased the chance of him absconding.
Li’s lawyer, Mike
He stood before Justice Trish Kelly and the jury as the defendant with Mike Hegarty and backed by his ex-teachers. The prosecutor was Jim Pearce. Li pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, claiming that his mother screamed at him for not playing piano and he had only acted in self-defence. Judge Trish Kelly rejected this claim, saying that Li had been provoked and lost control during the argument. She said he showed “a chilling lack of remorse or contrition”, even considering the cultural differences between Australia and China. Police also opposed Li’s claim, saying that the murder may have been premeditated according to his search history only days before his mother’s body was found (“where to stab knife causing quickest death”, “how to avoid police detection”,