Jodi Arias Jurors Expected to Attend Status Hearing
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ABC News(PHOENIX) — At least three jurors who convicted Jodi Arias of murder, but could not agree if she deserved the death penalty, are expected to attend a status hearing about the retrial schedule later Thursday morning.
A trial date has been set for July 18, but Arias’ attorneys filed a motion last week in Superior Court in Maricopa County asking Judge Sherry Stephens to delay the proceedings until January 2014, saying they needed to find witnesses to testify on Arias’ behalf and had scheduling conflicts.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez is hoping to start picking a new jury this summer.
Arias, 32, was convicted on May 8 of first-degree murder for brutally killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. Minutes after she was convicted, Arias said she wanted the death penalty. But her final plea to the jury sounded a lot different.
“I thought I’d rather die. But as I stand here now I can’t in good conscious ask you to sentence me to death because of them,” Arias said pointing to her family shortly before the jury began to deliberate her fate.
Diane Schwartz was in the majority of the jury and thought Arias deserved the ultimate punishment. She’s one of the jurors who said she feels compelled to be at Thursday morning’s hearing.
“As the trial progressed, you became so invested in it. Not having the capabilities to finish, in my mind, what we had started… I want to see it through to the end,” she said.
In the retrial of the penalty phase, a new jury will be selected. The jury will decide whether Arias should be sentenced to death or spend her remaining days in a women’s prison. If that jury cannot come to an agreement, Arias will automatically get life in prison.
The judge would decide whether Arias gets life without parole or life with the eligibility of parole after 25 years.
Arias remains in Maricopa County jail while she awaits her sentence.
Meanwhile, the movie depicting Arias’ crime, Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Liar, will premiere on the Lifetime network June 22, at 8 p.m. The film shows Arias’ relationship with Alexander and the aftermath of the murder, which occurred in June 2008.
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