The Arizona jury deciding whether Jodi Arias should be put to death for killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008 has reached a verdict on its sixth day of deliberations, court officials said on March 5.
Court officials said the verdict will be read at 9:30 a.m. local time.
Jodi Arias, a 34-year-old former waitress from Salinas, California, was found guilty of the murder in 2013, but jurors at the original trial deadlocked on whether to give her the death penalty. A new jury was seated in October.
Prosecutors accuse Jodi Arias of murdering Travis Alexander in a jealous rage, but she says she acted in self-defense.
Travis Alexander, 30, was found dead in a shower at his Phoenix-area home. He had been stabbed multiple times, his throat was cut almost from ear to ear, and he had been shot in the face.
In closing statements, defense attorney Kirk Nurmi called for Jodi Arias’ life to be spared, describing her as a remorseful and mentally ill woman who had been abused since childhood.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez accused Jodi Arias of acting in a cold and calculating way and said there were no factors preventing the jury from giving her the death penalty.
On March 3, the jury of eight women and four men were told by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens to try harder to come to a decision, after apparently deadlocking.
Jodi Arias decided not to plead her case directly to the jury at the end of the sentencing retrial after Judge Sherry Stephens denied the defendant’s request that the courtroom be closed to the public and media during her comments.
The original trial in 2013 was broadcast live and drew a large audience with its gruesome crime scene photographs and sexually explicit testimony.
Judge Sherry Stephens subsequently turned down requests for the penalty phase retrial to be streamed live or broadcast the same day. She has ruled that the verdict itself can be shown live.
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