UPDATE: Judge Sherry Stephens gave defense attorneys until Aug. 5 to file final motions supporting their arguments. She set another status conference in the case for Aug. 26.
UPDATE: A new jury could be impaneled to decide whether Jodi Arias should be sentenced to death or life in prison sometime in late September.
UPDATE: There will be no live camera in the courtroom for today’s 1:30pm ET hearing. Stay tuned to BostInno for the latest developments.
Jodi Arias is back in court today, live streaming below, as her attorneys will ask the judge to throw out the jury’s verdict that made her eligible for the death penalty. Arias, 33, was convicted of first-degree murder in the gruesome slaying of her then-ex boyfriend Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home.
Despite reaching a guilty decision, the jury was unable to come to the conclusion as to whether or not she would serve life in prison or pay the ultimate price. Now the prosecution must weigh the option of undertaking a new penalty phase and selecting a brand new jury or taking the death penalty option completely off the table–a move that the Associated Press notes “would either see Arias spend the rest of her life behind bars or be eligible for release after 25 years. That decision would be up to the judge.”
Watch the latest oral arguments in the Jodi Arias trial here:
Today’s oral arguments will focus on the jury’s finding that there was cruelty involved without a reasonable doubt, allowing for the possibility of the death penalty. However, the defense will likely counter with the stance that the definition of cruelty without a reasonable doubt is too vague especially for jurors who probably have little-to-no legal experience in determining how one crime can be done with more cruelty than another.
Back in June, Arias told reporters that she’d prefer the death penalty to life in prison because “death is the ultimate freedom,” a sentiment she also expressed years ago while the entire case was still in its beginning stages. She later retracted the statement.
The Jodi Arias trial burgeoned into one of the more captivating cases in recent memory, mostly due to the graphic sexual nature of her relationship with Alexander and the brutal nature of his death in which he was shot in the head, stabbed 27 times, and had his throat slashed from ear to ear.
