Jodi Arias Appellate Fund continues to take donations

We haven't heard the last from Jodi Arias.  As we are well aware from her social media campaigns since her arrest back in 2008, the Facebook page on her appellate fund states it has raised over $110,000 as of August of 2017.  From what her site states, the funds will only be used for costs associated with her appeal(s) and legal fees. Rumor has it Arias has hired a private investigator named Dorian Bonds, who aside from an initial retainer fee that was paid he has not received additional payment for his work. His focus allegedly is mistakes made by Arias original trial attorneys (Kirk Nurmi must wish he never met Jodi Arias).

Dorian Bond PI

Interestingly enough, there is a multi-page document online related to her case in which there are over 800 entries requesting various trial and court transcripts.  I'm not sure what this all means, but the document does list her attorneys:  Ms. Cory Engle (General Practice, Maricopa Public Defender) who has been in practice for 17 years and Margaret M. Green (licensed for 30 years, Maricopa County Public Defender, Appellate Division).  If the two attorneys listed on the Court of Appeal document, it would appear Ms. Arias is once again getting a free legal team to handle her appeal.  What is the appellate fund for and what can it legally be used for?

http://apps.supremecourt.az.gov/aacc/appella/1CA/CR/CR150302.PDF

Will she be able to use the funds to "hire" expert witnesses and private investigators?  The attorneys in the public defender's office are paid by the taxpayers - it seems a little misleading if not outright shady to have an appellate fund and then have public defender office attorneys working for you.  But then again, we are talking about Jodi Arias.  Nothing about this woman surprises me.  If there is a legal loophole to be found, she will find a way to wiggle her way through it.  How many millions of dollars will be spent appealing her conviction?

The document I just viewed is probably 20 pages long and appears to mostly be a request for documents, court transcripts and corrections to the record.  I am not familiar with how appeals work, but I'd imagine this is the beginning of her attorneys getting up to speed on her trial and looking for potential trial errors that were made by the prosecutor, judge and her own attorneys.  The only way Arias gets out of her life sentence is if they are able to find new evidence that wasn't available at the time of her trial that may have swayed the jury in a different direction.  Trial errors could also potential being troublesome, but I believe Judge Sherry Stephens allowed Arias' defense so much latitude they will be hard pressed to find problems with her rulings.

The problem with Arias' trial is her own testimony and her reluctant defense witnesses.  The only people who testified in any meaningful way (aside from Arias herself) were Alyce LaViolette and Dr. Richard Geffen, who was pretty much crushed by Prosecutor Juan Martinez on cross examination on his one sided study of Jodi Arias.  LaViolette, although once a well respected spokeswoman for domestic violence suffered a big hit on her credibility when she took the stand and concluded that murder victim Travis Alexander was emotionally and physically abusive to Jodi Arias.  She drew all of her conclusions from stories told by the woman at the center of it all - Jodi.  She failed to interview any of Travis' friends or family members.  She took what Jodi told her as the gospel and this is a mistake in any fair and equitable evaluation.

I don't believe there has ever been a trial like the Arias trial - I certainly haven't seen or heard of one where there was so much evidence of guilt and physical evidence left behind.  Add to that the well planned alibi and road trip to Utah, the gas can purchases and the mysterious gun theft from the very home Arias was staying at, and it's not hard to put this puzzle together.  Jodi Arias didn't do herself any favors by getting on television at every opportunity and telling differing stories of what happened.  First an outright denial; "I was nowhere near Arizona".  Then, "I wouldn't do that to him, I wouldn't hurt Travis".  While in custody the following day, Arias' story changed to "I was there, but I didn't kill Travis.  It was 2 masked people, a man and a woman.  It was obvious they were there for him".  Did she really expect that to ring true, that they would decide to let a witness live given the extent of the violence that occurred in that home?

Jodi Arias really doesn't stand much of a chance of overturning the guilty verdict.  I know they have already tried for prosecutorial misconduct, Arias has turned on the very attorney she begged the court to remain on as her counsel once he left the public defender's office.  She knows how to manipulate situations, but in my opinion she did receive a fair trial.  Any pre trial publicity that she now complains of was brought on by her.  She courted the press, she loved being in front of that camera.  She somehow managed to send her thoughts via Twitter from behind bars and communicated with the public using people on the outside to write posts for her.

Considering the carnage she left behind at Travis' house and the pain she inflicted on his friends and family, she should consider the life sentence a gift.  She narrowly escaped the death penalty.