Verdict is in! GUILTY of MURDER ONE - Hung Jury On Penalty Phase

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That's sort of why I wish that the Hughes were called to rebut the things that ALV was saying about their letters. I don't know if it was strategy to not call them or if they couldn't be called or what.


this really bothered me. chris's email was mischaracterized and he was never allowed to explain it. i would love to know why the hughes weren't able to testify and the DT was able to cherry pick from their email exchange to paint TA as a bad guy who abused his GF's. why didn't they testify????
 
After hearing the foreman's interview. I am just sick. Professional jurors are starting to sound like a plan.

Have any other interviews been on today regarding the trial? I am on the west coast.

TIA
 
At some point yesterday after the verdict I had to get off the forum. I understand the disappointment, anger and especially sorrow for the Alexanders. But there were a number of posts that were more than that, attacks/namecalling/hate on the jurors. I'm disappointed in that, because I thought this forum was better than that. There are some that are truly treating this like she was aquitted and I'm sorry but I don't understand that frame of mind. The woman was convicted of murder one. The cruelty aspect of it pretty much insures (IMO) that she wouldn't get parole. But reading on here yesterday, I saw comparisons to Casey Anthony. Let me say, Anthony is sipping lattes' right now in the comfort of whatever home she's in. Tell me how that compares to Arias, who at bare minimum will be stuck staring at bars for very likely the rest of her natural life?

I also keep seeing people say 'well they agreed to cruelty, why not dp' and 'they agreed to dp on the juror form'. One has nothing to do with the other IMO. When a juror says they are open to the DP, that means they are open to consider the DP. When the jurors agreed to cruelty, that meant that the crime warrented consideration of the DP, not automatically she deserved the DP.

It very easy and convienent to throw stones and hurl insults at the jurors from the luxury of sitting behind a computer monitor or mobile device when you weren't in that room. Those 4 people believed, in their opinion, that there was mitigating factors and because their opinion doesn't jive with the majority, they all of a sudden are subjected to all sorts of nasty comments. One of these days every one of us will have a strong opinion or conviction that doesn't not agree with the majority, whether that be among a group of friends or a jury deliberation room. I challenge anyone to stand by their convictions, even if others are screaming their head off at them, because it's what they believe. That takes a lot of courage and I applaud all the jurors for taking to time to discuss it and take their time until it was obvious there was no movement.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is something fundamentally wrong with the way this country decides how to determine the DP. Perhaps more scutiny should be directed at that instead of the people who are subjected to the process. It's very easy to say 'why didn't they just cave in and agree' but doing that on a murder conviction versus doing that on a life/death situation is apples and oranges. We are brought up in a society where life is taught to be precious to get some guy/gal off the street and give them the ultimate decision on condemning a person, so matter who it is, is not an easy thing, nor is it an easy decision. Hopefully many people, especially those who want to cast stones, never have to go through that.

Thank you for this!

IIRC, the jury instructions specifically say that a juror is NOT to abandon a strongly held conviction. This is to prevent undue pressure from the others. We do not want a system wherein one juror caves in to the rest. I am confident, given their Murder One/Extreme Cruelty verdicts, that this jury conscientiously followed every instruction and sincerely voted in line with their own careful conclusions.
 
Everything you have written.

I believe TA had something tangible on his person, meaning in his house, that would have done her in. She absolutely had to go there to get it away from him and to silence him. Her manipulations just makes it look as though she were just a jealous shrew.

Like you, I really wish he had alerted others to what he had discovered, created a trail that she couldn't have stopped. Damn.

Travis was a good guy... He trusted even those who didn't deserve to be trusted. She was stashing evidence away like Monica Lewinsky held onto that blue Gap dress. Somewhere in the back of her mind she always knew things weren't going to end well. He never saw this coming.
 
Not just that but he had a hard time reconciling that the small, vile thing could kill anyone. Not his exact words.

If this had been a male killer, the jurors would have come back within a few hours with the DP verdict.

Also, I think her Glamour shots (uhh before pictures) had an effect on some of the jurors. :stormingmad:
 
GMA was a heck of a note to wake up to. Guess we all need to feel grateful that it "wasn't an excuse" until it was...
 
After hearing the foreman's interview. I am just sick. Professional jurors are starting to sound like a plan.

So thrilling to know you can kill your child and go free or kill a BF (date) that pizzes you off & actually have even a chance of life on the outside.

What is a professional juror?
 
IMO, jury forepersons are pivotal to the outcome. This foreman strikes me as inflexible and strong-willed. I bet he wrote and sent in the early "we're deadlocked" question because he knew he wasn't changing his mind, and he refused to sit around and listen to the majority hector him about it. I bet we'll hear a lot about him from other jurors soon.

I agree! Bring it on jurors!
 
I really want to hear from the jurors that were excused.
 
Being unable to decide on a sentence is one thing but believing that Travis abused JA is just....heartbreaking for me. Travis has only his reputation left....
:tears::tears:

Exactly. I hope that the foreman is the only juror who believes that. The three others who voted for life may have had entirely different reasons . Also, the foreman never said that his misguided belief that she was mentally abused is why he likely voted for life. The questions GMA asked were pathetic, so we don't know.

What I did hear him say was that he thought JM was too aggressive when he was crossing her. Didn't quite use those words, but very close. This guy seemed to be sympathetic to her, and receptive to anything that would support that feeling.

I hope DD has juror 8 back on and asks him flat out what he thought of ALV's testimony, and whether or not he believed the murderer was abused in any way.
 
I don't know that I have that impression from Judge Stephens. I would hope she would give her natural life but I'm not 100% sure she would. And these days if I'm not 100% sure it's not good enough.

After the jury found this murder to be "especially cruel", I don't think there's any chance JA will ever be paroled.

Also, Beth Karas reported yesterday that because she's been convicted of 1st Degree Murder, the first 3 years she is in prison she will basically live the life of a death row inmate. 23 hours a day in her cell. After that she will be evaluated on her behavior and the officials will decide if she can go down a level and have more privileges. I take great pleasure in knowing she will live a pretty s***** life for a few years.
 
I just listened to the jury foreman's interview on GMA and the two things that stood out to me were his difficulty in relating the brutality of the crime to JA herself AND his own certainty ("very sure...") that JA was mentally and verbally abused by Travis. Seems that being an attractive young female helps to avert the DP...

JMO ~

To be fair, they didn't get the same context as we did on those "abusive" text messages and emails. I feel as if it needed to be pointed out, numerous times, that these were very few instances out of the course of their entire relationship and that they were always in response to something. I feel like those things were hinted at, but not really drilled home.

Out of context, could you say that those messages would not come across as abusive to you?

My problem with that, however, is this - Are they saying that they feel that this verbal abuse contributed to the fact that she premeditated and carried out a heinous murder? That's where the disconnect comes in for me. I don't see how that could be part of your consideration on whether or not she gets the death penalty because I don't see how that is a reasonable trigger. Certainly, a man could never use that for a trigger to do the exact same thing that Jodi Arias did. I just don't get the relevance.
 
Foreman said he could not believe A YOUNG WOMAN.had done this...................REALLY???
wont say what i really feel on here my opinions of him an the rest are not allowed.
 
Being unable to decide on a sentence is one thing but believing that Travis abused JA is just....heartbreaking for me. Travis has only his reputation left....
:tears::tears:

I can see why some people bought the issue that Travis mentally or emotionally abused Jodi. Remember, the judge let EVERYTHING come into
trial that helped Jodi and vetoed so much critical information that would
have painted Travis in a better light.

I don't blame the jury for the non verdict, I think the judge played a large part in it.
 
If the jurors tell us that the reason they wanted life for JA is because they believe life would be just as hard/harder than death or something like that I'll be ok.

If they come out and say 'I couldn't give JA the DP because she was abused' or 'because she still ha something to offer to the world' I'm going to scream!

If it's ok to murder your 'friend' in the most barbaric way possible, blame the victim for the crime and then get sympathy from a jury then we, the human race, have officially become worse than animals! Me included! There is no question of a decent society without accountability. I'm just disgusted. I hope the jurors speak out in favour of Travis...
 
Agreeing with the cruelty aspect only means it warrants entertaining the possibility of death.

That isn't what I meant and it isn't what I wrote.

My point was the cruelty aspect underlined the appropriateness of the DP. The possibility, no matter how small, of CMJA being released is what should have clicked and made the DP the only logical option.
 
GMA was a heck of a note to wake up to. Guess we all need to feel grateful that it "wasn't an excuse" until it was...

I don't think the Murder 1 with aggravating factor verdict speaks at all to it being an excuse. Emotional abuse was a mitigating factor that they latched onto. This verdict ... or lack thereof ... is a big picture issue IMO. The death penalty is a tough pill to swallow for a civilized nation.
 
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