The next
status hearing for Jodi Arias’ sentencing retrial is on the Superior Court of
Maricopa County’s court calendar at 8:30AM on Monday, August 26 2013. It’s been nearly 4 months since the jury
found Arias guilty of first degree murder and eligible for the death penalty,
but a mistrial was declared after the same jurors were unable to agree on the
appropriate sentence for this crime. We
know the wheels of justice move slowly, but in this case the wheel seems to be
flat. Although nobody is quite sure what
to expect going in to this new “mini-trial” one thing seems certain – this is
going to take a long time.
With so many
unresolved issues at hand such as the venue for the retrial, finding potential
jurors who can be impartial following the media saturation and how the
information from the 5 month long trial will be presented to these jurors are
just a few of the questions that we don’t know the answers to. Jerry Cobb, the public information officer
for the Maricopa County District Attorney’s office told HLN News that the new
jury will be informed that Jodi Arias was found guilty of first degree murder
and that she committed the murder in a cruel manner. Cobb said the judge and attorneys will need
to figure out how the testimony and exhibits from the first trial will be
presented to the new jury. It sounds
like negotiations will be necessary, and if we learned anything from trial #1,
the prosecutor and defense attorneys are likely to fight tooth and nail over
the smallest detail! I can’t even imagine
how long this process is going to take.
HLN News
also reports there’s a chance Arias could testify again during this phase of
the new trial, and she will have another opportunity to give a statement to
this jury without being subject to fierce cross examination from prosecutor
Juan Martinez. I’d say if past behavior
is any prediction of future behavior, there is no way Jodi Arias passes up a
chance to speak to the new jury.
Remember how she made it a point during trial #1 to turn her head and
upper body towards the jury and carefully answer each question from her defense
attorneys, doing her best to make eye contact and connect with the people who held
her fate in their hands? Arias has had
time to look back on her previous court performances, I’d bet money that she
has read much of what has been written about her in the media and will present
a refined version of herself to the new jury.
The jurors
that spoke to media after the first trial seemed to confirm what we speculated
on from hearing the jury questions to Arias – many of them didn’t believe her
testimony, many of them believed she lied under oath. Those jurors opinions and notions don’t
matter in the retrial. Did the state
miss their best chance at capital punishment when the mistrial was
declared? We’ll have to see how this
pans out. The first thing that they
probably need to address is where the trial will be held, and if Judge Stephens
feels the potential jury pool in Maricopa County is tainted, she could grant a
change of venue. But let’s be realistic –
this trial was covered nationally and nightly.
It’s hard to blame the media for the over saturation of coverage when
Jodi Arias was holding her own press junkets, even talking to Fox’s Troy Hayden
in the hours after her conviction. “Do
as I say, not as I do” seems to be the defense mantra, especially as
hypocritical as the defense’s recent motion to have all members of the new jury
disclose any Twitter accounts and the names they use. It’s not that it’s an
unreasonable request, but given that their client took to the Twitter airwaves
before, during and after her trial – using her own name, it seems a little
laughable that she is concerned what people are saying about her on
Twitter. Arias used social media to
smack down Nancy Grace, Juan Martinez and even her own defense attorneys. What Arias has done could be construed as
attempting to taint the jury pool, the tainting of the pool can go both
ways!! It’s anyone’s guess if there will
be a change of venue in the retrial, but if I were a betting gal, I’d say Judge
Stephens keeps the trial in Maricopa County.
Another issue
that remains unresolved from trial #1:
Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott’s repeated requests to withdraw the
attorneys of record. I honestly don’t
know if their requests were because they couldn’t seem to control the actions
of their client and they wanted off out of sheer frustration, or if this was
just another ploy to buy Jodi Arias more time – to perhaps give the public a
cooling off period? They made several
motions to withdraw, but Judge Stephens wisely did not allow them to retreat at
such a late stage in the trial. Will
they renew their motion to withdraw when they appear in court, or will they do
the right thing and see this case through?
Having new attorneys probably wouldn’t be in the best interest to Jodi
Arias. These two attorneys have fought
for her, and they know the case inside and out.
They may not have gotten her the acquittal she was looking for – but hey,
they couldn’t change the facts and evidence of this case. Hopefully Nurmi and Willmott stay on as
defense counsel of record. I still don’t
know what happened to Maria DeLaRosa, the mitigation expert. A new name appears on court minute entries
for mitigation expert on this case. Many
people out there are wondering why Arias chose to NOT put on any mitigation
witnesses in trial #1. They had to realize
there was a very good chance she would be convicted, and they should have been
ready for that likely scenario – yet when it was time to call their witnesses,
their case seemed to fall apart. They
fell back on blaming the prosecutor, for what they referred to as “prosecutorial
misconduct” or bullying Arias’ childhood friend into not testifying on her
behalf. Mitigation witnesses are
something I’ve rehashed too many times so I won’t go there!
As of April
25, 2013 – the tab for Arizona v. Arias was estimated to be $1,687,238.21,
according to information posted on HLN News’ website. DA Bill Montgomery has repeatedly said the
cost of the retrial would not be taken into consideration when discussing any
potential plea deal with Arias. Instead,
Montgomery has said he would only consider a plea with considerable input from
Travis Alexander’s family and prosecutor Juan Martinez. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind saving the
taxpayers some money, but I strongly hope any decisions are not made on
cost-considerations. The victim deserves
a full trial, with the same budget afforded to the woman who killed him. The Maricopa County public information officer
also revealed what a day in the life of Arias is like. I was surprised to see how many hours of time
she has outside of her cell, given that she’s now housed in a high security
cell after her conviction. According to
the information posted on HLNTV.com, Arias is locked in her cell from 10:00PM
to 6:00AM daily. Inmates have up to 16
hours in the day-room area, where they have access to telephones and (limited
channels) cable TV, an hour of outdoor recreation up to 4 times per week.
Inmates have access to a library, although have to request books through an
inmate request form and the number of books they can have at one time is
limited – there are also many programs inmates can sign up for including
religious services, GED and other educational programs. Arias sleeps in a bed with pink sheets, and
her cell contains a writing desk, toilet and sink. Breakfast is served after 7:00AM and dinner
is served after 6:00PM.
It seems she
has a lot more freedom than you’d expect, only being locked in her cell for 8
hours a day and having access to other areas and services for 16 hours per
day. It’s no wonder she has had the time
to start online book clubs and communicate so freely with the outside
world. Will Travis Alexander ever have
his day in court? That’s all people
really want here. Justice. This trial was supposed to be about the life
of a promising young man being cut short, but it turned into something much
different. It’s time to remember who the
real murder victim is and sentence the person convicted of killing him. Jodi Arias had her day in court, and she
lost.
