Arizona jury to consider death penalty for murderer Jodi Arias

[October 21, 2014]  By David Schwartz
 
 PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona jury will be sworn in on Tuesday to decide whether 34-year-old convicted murderer Jodi Arias will be executed for the 2008 slaying of Travis Alexander, court officials said.

After months of delays, a 12-member jury is set to be impaneled in Maricopa County Superior Court in downtown Phoenix in the penalty phase retrial of the former California waitress.

Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder in May 2013 for killing Alexander, 30, in his Mesa, Arizona, home. Alexander was found slumped in his shower after being stabbed 27 times, having his throat slashed and being shot in the face.

Arias testified for 18 days, claiming she acted in self-defense, while prosecutors said she murdered Alexander in a jealous rage.

The jury found her guilty and quickly decided that she was eligible for the death penalty. But they deadlocked on what her punishment should be, prompting Judge Sherry Stephens to declare a mistrial.

The five-month trial featured lurid testimony and grim crime-scene photographs, drawing many U.S. television and Internet viewers with the aid of live-streamed broadcasts. The penalty phase retrial, however, will not be broadcast live.

It took roughly three weeks to seat the new jury, from a pool of roughly 400 people. If that jury deadlocks, the death penalty will be off the table, and Stephens will decide if Arias gets life in prison, or life without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

(Editing by Curtis Skinner and Lisa Von Ahn)

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