Jodi Arias faces the death penalty in her trial because the original jury decided that she killed her former boyfriend Travis Alexander in an especially cruel manner.
Despite the conviction last year of the 2008 murder, the jury couldn’t come to a unanimous decision, leading to the current situation of a new jury being chosen.
The new jury “will decide only if there are mitigators that outweigh the cruelty,” explained AZ Central.
“The aggravator is called F(6) in the statutes, ‘especially heinous, cruel or depraved.’ In Arias’ case, the trial judge would only allow for cruelty. All murder could be deemed cruel, but ‘excessive cruelty’ is supposed to refer to great physical suffering and mental anguish before death.”
But the report notes that it’s almost impossible to draw a line between murders that should get punished by death and those that don’t.
The prosecutors choose which ones should. Juan Martinez in this case.
“The only narrowing function is prosecutorial discretion,” defense attorney Eric Crocker said. “You’re at the whim of the prosecutor’s office to determine which cases are capital and which are not.”
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery feels that prosecutor discretion is necessary because each murder case is different. “You can’t have a formula if you look at each one on its merit,” he said.
Now that the new jury has been chosen, the actual retrial will start on Tuesday. Live video will not be allowed--in fact, no video will be allowed until the trial is completely over.
The jury will be sworn in as prosecutors seek the death sentence.
While Arias’ murder conviction stands, prosecutors have one more shot at securing a death sentence with the new jury. Otherwise, Arias faces life in prison. Judge Sherry Stephens would then decide whether Arias could eventually get paroled or not.
A judge announced Thursday that the new jury will be seated on Tuesday. However, additional arguments are planned for Monday.
Arias acknowledged killing Alexander, but she said it was self-defense. Prosecutors argued the killing was carried out in a jealous rage after Alexander wanted to end their affair.
The retrial is expected to last into December.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
