Reuters: U.S.: Jodi Arias expected to address jury as it considers death penalty

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Jodi Arias expected to address jury as it considers death penalty May 21st 2013, 15:49 By Tim Gaynor PHOENIX | Tue May 21, 2013 11:49am EDT PHOENIX (Reuters) - Convicted killer Jodi Arias is expected to address jurors on Tuesday as they weigh whether to sentence her to death or life in prison for brutally killing her ex-boyfriend in Arizona five years ago. Arias, 32, was found guilty earlier this month in the premeditated murder of Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his Phoenix-area home in June 2008. He had been stabbed multiple times, had his throat slashed and been shot in the face. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens on Monday denied requests by the defense for a mistrial and to withdraw from the case. She also denied a motion for a stay to give the defense time to appeal her decisions to the Arizona Supreme Court. The defense said it would not call any more witnesses. The trial is set to continue at 9:30 a.m. local time, when Arias is expected to make a final statement to the jury, although it is not clear what she might say. In a post-conviction television interview, the soft-spoken former waitress said she would prefer the death penalty to life in prison, and she was temporarily placed on suicide watch in jail. In the mitigation phase of the trial, the defense had hoped to call Arias' friend Patricia Womack to testify on her behalf. But defense counsel Kirk Nurmi told the court on Monday that Womack had received threats and would not testify. Saying Womack's absence would deny the jury a full picture of Arias' life prior to meeting Alexander in 2006, Nurmi unsuccessfully requested a mistrial, which would have affected the sentencing portion of the trial while leaving her murder conviction intact. Prosecutor Juan Martinez told the court on Monday that, in a prior interview with Womack, she had refused to answer questions about her drug use. He said that her refusal to incriminate herself would have precluded her from testifying. The jury that convicted Arias of murder found last week she had acted with extreme cruelty and ruled her eligible for the death penalty. The murder trial has featured graphic testimony and photographs as well as a sex tape and became a sensation on cable television news with the tale of an attractive, young woman charged with an unthinkable crime. Arias has said she shot Alexander with his own pistol when he attacked her in a rage because she dropped his camera while taking snapshots of him in the shower. She said she did not remember stabbing him. Martinez said Arias had repeatedly stabbed Alexander for two minutes as he tried to escape from the bathroom. She then followed the bleeding victim down a hallway and slashed his throat when he was too weak to get away. Alexander, a 30-year-old businessman and motivational speaker with whom Arias said she was having an on-again, off-again affair, knew he was going to die and was unable to resist his attacker at that point, Martinez said. Last week, Nurmi walked jurors through eight mitigating factors they are being asked to consider as they mull Arias' punishment. Among the factors is whether Arias, who was 27 at the time of the murder and had no criminal history, had suffered abuse. (Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alden Bentley) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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