Jodi Arias is spared from a murder conviction after a woman juror refused to back the death penalty verdict last Thursday, march 5. The deadlock is considered to be the second time a jury was unable to decide on whether Arias, a murder convictee in 2013 should be executed or not after killing her former boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008.
Jodi Arias, under the Arizona state law can no longer be sentenced to death after these two deadlocks.
"We are hung and additional time will not change this," the foreman of the jury of eight women and four men wrote in a note read by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens. The verdict was definitely a mistrial according to the judge that later on sent Travis Alexander's family into a breakdown.
"The real justice will be in the afterlife, when Jodi burns in hell," Alexander's sister, Tanisha Sorenson, emotionally told reporters outside the court after the trial.
Arias' fate now lied on Court judge Sherry Stephens. She can either be sentenced to life imprisonment or a possible parole after 25 years in jail.
In the hearing, defense attorney Kirk Nurmi showed Jodi Arias' photographs to the jurors. He pleaded with them to spare the life of Arias, who is a mentally ill woman and has been abused as a child. Travis Alexander's death, according to Nurmi, can never be soothed with any verdict.
Arias, according to prosecutors killed Alexander in a jealous rage. He was found dead in the shower and has been stabbed more than 20 times and been shot in the face. His throat was also cut from ear to ear. Testimonies in the trial also cited examples on how Arias spied on Alexander's emails. She even allegedly sneaked through a doggie door on Alexander's home to snoop on him.
The next hearing for the case is scheduled on April 13, 2015.
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