It’s been almost two months since a Phoenix jury found Jodi
Arias guilty of first degree murder for killing Travis Alexander. She is now a convicted felon and should not
be able to profit in any manner from the notoriety of her crime – and boy was
her crime notorious. The majority of
people facing such serious charges resulting from such an unthinkable act of
violence against another human being would lay low and perhaps take some time
to reflect on what happened, how they ended up behind bars and how they could
have possibly taken another human beings life away from them. Apparently Jodi Arias is not one of the
majority.
Of the many things that make Jodi Arias such an unlikeable
defendant is the manner in which she has conducted herself while awaiting
trial. The shameless media interviews,
the numerous lies about how Travis Alexander ended up dead in that shower, the
vile and unproven allegations she made about him being a sexual deviant – the list
goes on. Her use of social media and the
internet has been unbelievable. How does
a woman behind bars have multiple websites pawning her wares and accepting
donations on her behalf, ensuring she has plenty of honey buns and other
commissary items to make her comfortable in jail?
This is the same woman who told the taxpayers she was
indigent and couldn’t afford her own legal representation. So she got a $2,000,000 defense team. While it’s unknown exactly how much Arias has
made since her arrest back in July of 2008 through her online art auctions, her
website that sells her “original artwork” as well as “limited edition” copies
of certain pieces (“due to popular demand!”), her rip-off originally designed “Survivor”
t-shirts and outright donations.
Although in poor taste, I don’t believe it was outright illegal before
she was convicted of this crime.
Everything should have changed with the guilty verdict. Has it?
Her website is still up and running, and although some of the pieces of
display say “not for sale”, there are plenty of pieces that are – prices are listed. What’s even more disturbing is that people
can buy these using MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover Cards and
others. Do these big corporations know
who they are enabling?
Once she was convicted of murder, any and all proceeds from
these type of activities should be going to the Arizona Industrial Commission
where the family of the victim can file a claim to get these proceeds. Arias’ Survivor t-shirts are still for
sale. Who’s monitoring these monetary
transactions? Will Arias be able to
funnel that money to her family before the state figures out what’s been going
on? It’s difficult to say how much she
has received purely from donations.
Arias is still tweeting from behind bars, although she assured her
followers that Donovan Bering is not the facilitator. Guess that became a problem since she’s also
a convicted felon – no doubt the outraged public was responsible for bringing
that to the attention of the appropriate parties.
Arias’ twitter account tells the story. On May 13, 2013 she tweeted to remind her supporters
that donations to her family or to her should only be made via her supporter
website that I won’t name here. You know the one I’m referring to. Should she be accepting or receiving
donations at all after May 8th? What gives? As you probably know, on
June 22 she tweeted that she is not currently accepting donations for appeals,
apparently she is unsure if she will “plea or appeal”. Her words, not
mine! And her latest tweet, made 20
hours ago “A lawyer is someone who profits from your experience”. Deep thoughts. So who’s in charge of monitoring these sales,
the money movement and ensuring it doesn’t ultimately end up in the hands of
the felon or her family members? Does
anybody know? The Alexander family has
retained attorneys for their wrongful death civil suit against Jodi Arias. That
will be a slam dunk now that she has been found guilty. My concern is that she’s moving money out of
the reach of the Alexanders. It would be nice to know that someone is watching
and monitoring her activities, these web sales and donations. Crime should never ever pay! What can we do as concerned citizens do to
ensure criminals aren’t compensated for their notoriety? Does anybody have any ideas?
Unfortunately, there are people in this world who are more than willing to pay for her "art" and T-shirts. Probably the same people who bought her story of self-defense. I can't imagine why anyone would donate money to her commissary account, although I wouldn't think that would be illegal. Hopefully, a publishing company won't offer her a book contract, but I wouldn't bet on that! Maybe JA will fade away in the Arizona sun and become a distant memory like Casey Anthony. The sooner this trial is over, the sooner she will be forgotten and hopefully nobody will give a damn what she has to sell!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (7/5 @ 12:51),
DeleteI fear she will find some snake-hole way to profit from a book - if not written "by her mother" or through a family member or otherwise. She is sneaky. I am so against her getting money from the suffering of the Alexanders, it angers me to a point I don't really understand! I just want Travis' family to get every red cent she makes in connection with her dirty deeds. I fear nobody is watching the store, so to speak.
Ugggghhhh, it blows my mind that JA is allowed to get messages out via Twitter. I can't wait until this trial is over and done with and the state of Arizona can be done paying her legal fees. $2,000,000 is above and beyond what this murderer deserves.
ReplyDeleteAnd as to her defense team strategy changing to claim she is "mentally ill," PLEASE. Jodi Arias is NOT mentally ill. She may have a personality disorder (or multiple disorders), but so do many people; and these people are capable of living productive, mostly normal lives WITHOUT murdering someone. If Jodi is mentally ill, how did she hold down jobs? How did she have a four-year relationship with Daryl Brewer that included developing a close relationship with his young son? How did she develop the products that she has been selling online? GIVE ME A BREAK! A "mentally ill" person does not have these capabilities. I hope the Maricopa County Attorney's Office makes this idiotic defense strategy stop before it begins. The people of the state of Arizona do not want more money stolen from them to fund the defense of this manipulative, confessed murderer (and sociopathic LIAR).
AZCathy,
DeleteOh you are so right on so many levels. Funny how they tried to resort to using "mental illness" to their advantage once the self defense claim didn't hold water. I'm not sure why it offends me so much to think she's going to make money somehow. I'm betting her mom or another family member will write a book FOR her and they will find some loophole to keep those proceeds from the victims family. I'd just like to know somebody is minding the store!!
Maybe we needed a stronger Judge on that bench, I don't know but the luxuries and the pampering and the things she gets away with is absolutely absurd and disgusting and I am really aghast at how much she can do ....When the Hell is someone going to say ENOUGH throw some cuffs on her and put her away FAR FAR away????
DeleteWont' the Alexander lawyers be able to attach and stop this?
ReplyDeleteI think that they can go after any monetary gain of JA's with the civil litigation. I would hope that they would attach any profit she makes from ANYTHING because she owes the Alexander family as well as the State of AZ. At least in my opinion she should be made to pay back a family (though no amount of $$ replaces a human life) for their loss and the state for monies which could have gone to AZ public schools.
DeleteI wrote to Bill Montgomery, County Attorney (Maricopa Co. Attorneys Office) about the Jodi Arias trial and the money being stolen from deserving school children. I asked him to prohibit this trial from running on (he DOES have that power) and come to a sound conclusion already. If you want to add your opinion go to: http://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/
I agree that the Alexander family is VERY deserving of financial compensation, because of the tremendous personal and financial hardships that they had to endure because of the unusually-long trial (which, sadly, may soon go into yet another phase).
ReplyDeleteFor those five months, they set aside their own jobs, and had to absorb the expenses of staying away from home during most of that time, perhaps traveling to be with spouses and children on the weekends. Imagine what a financial hardship it would be for any of us, to have to "work" away from home for five months, but NOT get paid for it! And, they'll have to go through this again, for who knows how long, for the penalty phase of the trial, if that goes forward.
Unlike Jodi's defense attorneys or the "expert witnesses" they've recruited, the Alexander family gets NO compensation for THEIR "work"...representing Travis as they seek justice on his behalf. No amount of money will ever compensate them for the emotional distress they have suffered...not just the loss of a brother, but the pain of seeing his character vilified day after day in the courtroom. But perhaps some financial assistance can at least help them get their lives back in balance when this trial is finally over.
Has anyone seen this? Our Juan Martinez won an award for outstanding prosecution!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lexingtonprosecutor.com/juan-martinez-jodi-arias-prosecutor-awarded-ndaa-home-run-hitters-award-for-outstanding-prosecution/
-Alice
hahahah lol that is pathetic!
ReplyDelete-Alice