 In 2014, Li's sentence was changed by the Supreme court of Beijing to 7 years.The original first degree murder charge has been changed to secondary degree murder charge as the Supreme court of Beijing ruled that Zhao was accidentally killed by Li during a pillow play fight.The court decision was controversial as the court ruled without any new evidence

The arrests for Amanda Zhao's murder took many years to complete, and responsibility was found to be mainly because the Canadian government is reluctant in giving evidence of murder cases to China, as Chinese authorities allow for capital punishment for murder, which is illegal in Canada.