The Jodi Arias Hung Jury…

I really didn’t want to have to blog this last development in the Jodi Arias trial. I had hoped that the jury would reach a unanimous decision and grant Travis Alexander justice and his family peace and closure. I cannot even imagine every way they have been affected by being in the courtroom every day for five months after waiting five years for the trial. I cannot imagine how sick it must make them to look at Travis’ pictures: his throat slit from side to side almost decapitated, 29 stab wounds and a bullet to the head. All they wanted and prayed for was for this ordeal to be over so they could try and put the pieces of their lives back together and move on. The jury was told, from the outset, that this was a death penalty case. They knew if the evidence proved excessive cruelty that the death penalty was in order. They knew the circumstances of the murder. They all said they would have no problem voting for the death penalty. Juan Martinez, the prosecutor, all but drew them a detailed map leading to the death penalty. He described every way in which the murder was cruel. He told them how, for two very long minutes, Travis knew he was being murdered and was helpless to defend himself. He eliminated every one of the ridiculous mitigating factors the defense and Jodi tried to present. There were no mitigating factors. So what if she was 27? Twenty-seven is young, but not so young that she had no life experience. So what if she is an artist? She has some artistic talent, but what does that have to do with the murder? So what if she never was convicted of another crime before this one? Does that mean she gets a free pass on the first murder? So what if she had an “abusive” childhood and was hit with a wooden spoon? How many of us have been similarly punished by wooden spoons, switches and belts? So what if her mother paid attention to her baby sister and Jodi felt neglected. What child with younger siblings hasn’t experienced that? So what of she gave her hair to “Locks of Love”? Maybe those receiving her freaking hair wouldn’t even want it.

Jodi, who changed her mind in a couple of days about asking for the death penalty, “pleaded” for life in prison for the sake of her family. She outlined what she would do in prison to benefit society. She would start a book club so the inmates could discuss literature. She would teach literacy and Spanish to those who want to learn. She would start a recycling program. She will sell her “Survivor” T-Shirts to raise money for domestic abuse victims. As I am tying this I just want to scream. Who the hell cares what she would do? Who the hell can believe her anyway? It’s what I didn’t hear that bothered me. She never apologized to Travis’ family for the pain she caused them. She never even showed a bit of remorse or emotion. Her first concern is always addressing the media and granting interviews. She demands make-up and that they do not film her prison stripped pants. She needs to do her hair. WHY are they allowing her to give interviews at all? Haven’t we seen and heard enough from her already. It’s not like we are learning anything new or truthful. She just lies so easily, it’s like breathing for her. And if those of us who watched the trial could not stomach the sight of her, just imagine how Travis’ family and friends must be feeling?

Yesterday the jury came back with the non-verdict on the penalty phase. After having no trouble of convicting her of first degree murder and extreme cruelty, they failed to follow through and give her the sentence the law demands in such a case…death. They could not reach a unanimous decision. We don’t know the breakdown of what went on in the deliberation room, we just know they could not agree. And now, they leave this final job for a new jury. A new and impartial jury must be impaneled by July. However, this new jury doesn’t know all the facts. Much of the evidence will have to be rehashed for their benefit. The Alexander family will have to sit there and endure more testimony and look at the horrible pictures of Travis, slaughtered with his blood everywhere. They will have to look at and listen to Jodi Arias lie. They already heard her lie about how Travis was abusive. They heard her lie about his inclinations towards pedophilia. They heard her lie, assassinating his character, to build her defense to the very end of the trial. Now they have to endure more. Isn’t this cruel and unusual punishment being inflicted on this family by the jury’s lack of agreement? It’s not that I don’t feel bad for these people who have devoted a so much of their time to this case. They must be exhausted and drained from it. It’s taken over their lives. But they were so close to the end and failed to complete the job. I wonder if any of them thought about how this non-verdict would affect the Alexander family. Jodi gets a reprieve and his family gets tortured some more.

And Arizona just complicated the whole process. Their law requiring a second jury to decide the penalty, rather than the judge, is the reason this trial could not be over yesterday. And Jodi will very liking require two new attorneys, who will need to get up to speed, because these two tried to get removed from her case twice in the past week, saying they could not provide adequate defense.

It just angers me that the system bends over backwards for people like Jodi, who are clearly guilty of a heinous crime, but slacks when it comes to considering victims and their families.

Now we will get at least a two month break, before the final phase begins again. I hope this new jury gets it right.

The Jodi Arias Verdict: GUILTY Murder One

It took five years for the trial of Jodi Arias to take place. Five years from the time she slaughter Travis Alexander, her boyfriend, in his own home. There is no other way to describe the crime. There were approximately 30 stab wounds, mostly to his back. She slit his throat from ear to ear. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, she shot him in the face two times. She tried to clean up the crime scene, but that was impossible. So she deleted some incriminating pictures from her camera and threw it in the washing machine, thinking she had destroyed them…wrong. The pictures were retrieved and used at trial. Then she took a little trip, turning her cell phone off, so she couldn’t be tracked to any particular location. She had a tryst with an old boyfriend to establish an alibi. When she was brought in for questioning, she lied and lied and lied, swearing she had nothing to do with the murder. She came around to admitting her guilt, but claimed it was self defense. However the jury, and any one in their right mind, would not believe the “self-defense” theory. On top of that, Jodi has “amnesia” for the time of the murder and a couple of hours after. It was selective memory loss and the defense provided two “expert” witnesses to back her up. One expert said she suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome and the other said she was a battered woman. Neither expert was believable at $250 an hour, a huge waste of taxpayer money.

I’ve read a lot about the case. This despicable excuse for a human being not only killed Travis, but made an attempt to assassinate his character. She portrayed him as an abuser and that she was afraid of him. Yet she killed him right after a session of “love making” while Travis was in the shower. She just happened to have a loaded gun and knife handy. The gun, which she disposed of, just happened to be the same type that was stolen from her grandparent’s home a few days earlier. She also forged a letter and testified that Travis was attracted to young boys. The jury was not allowed to hear about the forged letter, but she did testify in court that he looked at photos online and in magazines. People who knew Travis painted a very different picture of him. No one had a bad word to say about him. His family and friends have been waiting five years for justice. They have had to endure looking at the gruesome crime scene photos used at trial. They have shed countless tears while Jodi spun her web of lies and sat in her seat, with no expression of emotion, “drawing” artwork to sell, throughout the trial. By the way, they have recently reported that her “artwork” is of copyrighted material, print ads from magazines, so it’s a rip off.

Jodi’s “story” of what took place that day on 2008 was shot full of holes by the prosecution and the medical examiner. The trial has been going on since January. Jodi took the stand and was questioned for several days. Apparently, she didn’t convince anyone of her innocence or that the crime was an act “self-defense.” She killed Travis in the shower. Why would Travis attack her from the shower? Who in the world is going to attack someone from the shower. How many stab wounds are necessary for self defense? If you don’t know you are going to be attacked, how do you happened to have two weapons on hand? Why don’t you call the police instead of messing with the crime scene and evidence, and then running off for a rendezvous with an ex-boyfriend? So many unanswered questions. The jury deliberated for roughly 15 hours and came to the conclusion she was guilty of murder one, premeditated murder. Five of the jurors voted it was premeditated, seven voted it was both premeditated and a felony murder. Jodi could get the death penalty depending on the outcome of the next two phases of the trial.

Today the second phase begins. It’s the “aggravation” phase in which the prosecutor has to show that the crime was unusually cruel. I don’t see how the prosecution will have a problem with proving that. From the crime scene investigators can tell that Travis, already bleeding from stab wounds, had gotten up and was standing in front of the bathroom mirror and watched while Jodi continued stabbing him in the back. He tried to get away from her, looking to get to the exit, but collapsed on his way to the door. It was then that they say Jodi cut his throat from ear to ear and dragged his body back to the bathroom. And, as if that all wasn’t enough, she then shot him in the face two times. How long did Travis suffer during the attack? How terrified was he? It will all come out today at trial. Of course, her defense attorney’s have the impossible task of trying to say it wasn’t unusually cruel…good luck to them…even Perry Mason and Matlock together couldn’t pull that off.

The third phase is the “mitigation” phase. That is the phase when family and friends will be allowed to speak. The defense attorney’s will have to make some kind of argument that Jodi doesn’t deserve the death penalty and state some reasons. I have no idea what kind of reasons they will come up with. One lawyer suggested they say this was her first criminal act. Another thought Jodi should make a statement about being very remorseful. No one believes that Jodi is capable of making that kind of statement, and it may not make a difference if she did. She lied so much, no one is going to believe anything she says. Travis’ family will be allowed to express their feelings and tell the judge and jury what punishment they feel Jodi deserves. Oddly enough, after the verdict was read, Jodi was already talking to the media, as calm as can be, saying she would prefer the death penalty to life in prison because longevity runs in her family. I wonder if that is a “ploy” or a manipulative tactic on her part, to get life in prison. Maybe she feels she is so hated by everyone that they will do the opposite of what she requests? In my opinion, no one wants to die. Survival is a strong human instinct. I don’t put it past her to try and “play” the system, the jurors and Travis’ family.  I say make her happy and give her the death penalty, it’s cheaper than 60 years in prison.

Thank God the jury saw through all her lies. After the OJ and Casey Anthony verdicts, I have to say I was a little nervous she would get away with murder one. It’s good to know that Travis will get justice and hopefully, his family will have some closure knowing Jodi will be punished.

Jodi Arias Murder Trial…

Seems I am the last to know about the case of Jodi Arias, the woman who brutally murdered her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in Arizona in 2008. I haven’t read all the facts, but they are prosecuting her for premeditated murder and she is claiming self defense, saying she was a victim of abuse. The only other story with as many holes in it as hers is Oscar Pistorius’s account of what happened to his girlfriend. Ironically enough, both bloody victims were found in the bathroom.

Jodi went into Travis’ home armed with a gun and a knife. She says he lunged at her. She ended up shooting him twice in the face, slitting his throat from side to side and stabbing him 27 times. Overkill? The pictures of the crime scene are pretty gruesome.

To make a case for her defense, Jodi is claiming all kinds of things about Travis to malign his character and justify her actions. And even though she kept a detailed diary of their relationship, she never bothered to mention the things she now alleges about him. His deviant behavior, she states, included his sexual desire for young boys. She alleges he was a sexually deviant womanizer. He owned a gun. He abused her. None of these things have been confirmed by evidence or witnesses. At first, Jodi denied she had anything to do with the murder and blamed it on “masked intruders.” But later, she admitted to doing it. She used the handgun from her grandparent’s home and got rid of it. She also got rid of the bloody clothes and tried to clean up the crime scene. The motive? Jealous rage. She allegedly killed him because he tried to break up with her.

Investigators found a camera at the murder scene which contained some pictures now being used as evidence. The memory card contained pictures of their last sexual encounter (the case is full of sexually explicit details that occurred during their relationship), Travis in the shower presumably just before his death, pictures of his bloody body and Jodi dragging the body across the floor. The crime scene pictures may have been taken accidentally when the camera was dropped. There are a lot of pictures online. There are a lot of videos of Jodi testifying in her case. She is very calm and cool. It’s eerie to me. Almost reminds me of Casey Anthony. No conscience, no remorse, no emotion.

Jodi told many lies to authorities throughout their investigation. Her story has changed several times. There is more than enough evidence to convict her of premeditated murder, in my opinion. There is daily live stream coverage of the trial online. I caught a few minutes of her testimony. She looks like someone you would never expect to commit such a brutal crime. Yet, some of what I read indicates she was an obsessed stalker.

Enter Nancy Grace. Nancy loves a good crime story and milks them all for all they are worth. She has taken on Jodi’s case and found her guilty of Murder 1. I haven’t had a chance to watch Nancy yet because I am watching American Idol…I rather listen to music than be bombarded with the details of this murder/sexcapade. However, I may tune in when there is nothing better to watch and get Nancy’s full blown opinion right from the horse’s mouth. One of the things Nancy is harping on is that Jodi now has a female, inmate lover and expects this to bolster the prosecution’s case. Jodi claimed that Travis was a sexual deviant, but this jailhouse romance, coupled with the fact that another ex-boyfriend’s claims that she liked to take naked pictures, may just shift the deviancy on to her, in the minds of the jurors.

I have to say, the facts of the case are fascinating enough to have gotten my attention. There is certainly enough here for a great movie. You just can’t make this stuff up. Oh, did I mention she bought several gas cans before committing the murder? Who does that? It’s almost like she had intentions to burn the place down and destroy all the evidence…don’t you think?