<p>Life in prison or death?</p>
<p>Can someone explain what the foreman said regarding felony murder vs. premeditation which showed the jury was not unanimous with regard to some of those details? Yet they were in agreement that she was guilty of 1st degree murder.</p>
<p>I don’t think they have the proof necessary for first degree. I’m thinking they’ll call it a reckless act, or determine that he did attack her and she’ll get manslaughter.</p>
<p>She was found guilty of first degree murder.</p>
<p>All twelve jurors had to agree on the premeditation factor, otherwise she would not be convicted of 1st degree murder. The felony part has something to do with her entering the apartment, like break and enter or similar.</p>
<p>Seriously? Jody’s first reason why the jury should spare her life is because she will continue to donate her hair to Locks of Love?</p>
<p>Oh, and let’s not forget that she designed a T-shirt to help the survivors of domestic violence. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>It’s all about her…</p>
<p>It is easy for juries to give the death penalty to monsters. She is trying to make sure the jury knows she is human and not a monster. She is trying to show she has feelings and a family who will experience a loss if she is executed. It is also more difficult for juries to give the death penalty to women especially if they cry a little and admit lying.</p>
<p>I’m watching this PowerPoint that her defense is presenting and I’m thinking, “This isn’t the best of presentations.” but I can understand, from a jury’s standpoint, how someone could be swayed.</p>
<p>Wait a second…I thought she said she WANTED the death penalty. Do you mean she lied about that after hearing the guilty verdict?</p>
<p>It was disgusting when she pulled out the “survivor” t-shirt and played the domestic abuse card… again. I keep hearing how smart Jodi is. That was NOT smart to play that hand again, to a jury that did not buy into her abuse story the first, second, and third time it was mentioned during the trial. It was almost laughable when her defense attorney Jennifer Wilmot said that Jodi didn’t have an ego during her final argument.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hoping so.</p>
<p>I turned on CNN this afternoon to see some tornado coverage and instead was shocked to see Jodi Arias. I don’t understand why anyone cares about this one murder trial–surely there are plenty in this country that are never covered at all. Shame on CNN for treating this tawdry local story as if it were in any way newsworthy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There is something about our culture that seeks out Damsel In Distress television. If there is a young pretty woman who is missing or has been killed or has killed someone, millions of people want to know every detail of the event. I went to a neighborhood function and I was amazed at how many people knew about the trial and had opinions about every aspect of it. I don’t get it either.</p>
<p>I bet she gets life. It is difficult for juries to give the death penalty to women even though she clearly deserves to die.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The juxtaposition of a pretty, soft spoken girl with the absolute barbaric brutality of this murder generated a lot of interest in the story. And the sex…lots and lots of testimony about sex…of course the networks ate it up. Not really all that surprising.</p>
<p>For me (male’s perspective), the sex had very little to do with the fascination of this trial. It had more to do with concocting one lie after another and then getting testimony from “expert” defense witnesses to back up Jodi’s claims claims of domestic abuse, amnesia (aka “the fog”), etc. etc. Adding to this intrigue was having her testify on her own behalf for 18 days.</p>
<p>I’m leaning toward a hung jury on this penalty phase. There’s a good chance at least one juror will not vote for the death penalty.</p>
<p>Chicken or egg? No one would have been able to develop a fascination with this trial–for whatever reason–had the news outlets not brought it to the forefront. They seized on it not because it was inherently newsworthy, but because they thought it would grab viewers and build ratings. I just think it’s beneath an organization like CNN to jump on the bandwagon–or it should be. Of all the potential news stories to be reported upon Tuesday afternoon, this was far down at the bottom of the heap.</p>
<p>I have watched this trial on and off. I think the “draw” for people is that we have never seen someone so completely detached from her gruesome actions. IMO she is a vortex of evil and narcissism. She has contaminated everyone around her. Unfortuntaely, I predict everyone associated with her defense will suffer immensely when this is all over. I am a huge fan of Juan Martinez and think he is one of the best lawyers I have ever some across. </p>
<p>I was not a proponent of the death penalty until this case. But from what I have seen, she just is not redeemable. She seems to have no soul. I do still struggle with whether that judgment should ever lie with a human being - or should it be reserved for a higher power? But when I see the destruction this woman has left in her path, I just feel like the world should be protected from her.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think maybe you have captured it, at least for me. If you haven’t really watched any of the trial or associated media, it might seem from a distance to be puzzling why the case has generated so much interest. I didn’t watch any of the actual trial, but I did watch a couple of shows (2 48 Hours and a Dateline show) on this case, and that’s exactly what drew me to the story. I’ve never seen someone lie so sweetly, so “sincerely,” over and over and over. It fascinated me how she could do this in the face of so much compelling evidence to the contrary. I’m not sure if she is a sociopath or just a really sick BPD and NPD, but she clearly is a menace to anyone she should become enamored with (or in Travis’ case, obsessed with). BPD people are known to have a real problem with abandonment, and poor Travis never stood a chance once he decided he wanted to be free of her. Someone likened her to the Glen Close character in Fatal Attraction-scary indeed.</p>
<p>I know why I got hooked on this case …Juan Martinez was in my law school class. I was flipping the channels one day when I was home sick and saw a familiar face and started watching. Jodi was on the stand and she was so bizarre, I couldn’t help but continue watching.</p>
<p>I am anti-death penalty but after everything I’ve seen of her, I confess I’m rooting she is sentenced to death. I’m not a psychologist but I think she’s a sociopath. Unbelievable. </p>
<p>I wasn’t impressed with her defense team but I have a bit of sympathy for them. They didn’t have much to work with. But I do think either Jodi sucked them into her fantasy world (which I think was the case with her so-called experts) or they went to the dark side in their attacks on Travis’ character/Jodi as victim. </p>
<p>For those of you who might ask for the inside scoop on Juan, I’ve got nothing. He always seemed like a nice guy but that’s about all I remember.</p>
<p>I wasn’t impressed with Nurmi or Willmot either - think they were in way over their heads and were certainly no match for Juan. I, however, do not have any sympathy for them. I found Nurmi’s whining yesterday about “intimidation” by the prosecution to be particularly irritating. </p>
<p>Criminal court proceedings by their nature are adversarial, and I am sure this judge has seen far more contentious trials than this one. Juan has a responsibility to do his job. If the defense witnesses can’t stand up to cross examination then perhaps the defense should pick their witnesses more carefully. The defenses’ witnesses were a disaster and their proposed mitigation witness would have been the same. Nurmi’s constant motions to be removed as counsel, along with his blatant admission to the jury that he personally didn’t like Arias, borders on malpractice in my mind. Willmot just reminds me of Mini Mouse and her wide eyed shock at Juan’s demeanor is hysterical. Grow up Meghan you are not back in law school at “mock trial”. </p>
<p>I am sure Arias is every defense attorneys worst nightmare, but “if you can’t take the heat then you shouldn’t be in the kitchen.”</p>