Well, the death penalty is no longer an option. Unfortunately the jury was deadlocked so the decision will be made by the judge – either life in prison or life with possibility of parole. I am curious, does anybody think the outcome would have been different had this jury seen the previous trial?
Earlier today the jury in the Jodi Arias case began their deliberations. Before that Nurmi gave a final plea for her life, citing many of the same things from yesterday and also going over mitigators, including abuse as a child. Here’s some of the details from Twitter:
Nurmi’s points:
1. Jodi experienced trauma/abuse as a child.
2. Chides Juan for moon speech.
3. Says state is trying to distract them.
4. Asks the jury: “Will you kill this woman?”
5. Brings up Travis’ sexual relationships.
6. Geffner and Fonseca relied on state evidence.
7. Says Deanna and Vernon lied for Travis.
8. Tells jury to listen to the sex tape.
9. He repeats several phrases from the sex tape.
10. DeMarte was biased for the state.
11. Jodi had BPD and was suicidal at a young age.
12. Says to read the journals.
13. Brings up the Hughes e-mail where he was concerned about how Travis treated women.
14. Implies she was invited to his house day of murder due to sexual activities.
15. Travis was pissed off about Abe.
16. It’s their duty to read about the mitigating factors.
17. He goes through chart of 9 mitigating factors. Including: Not a criminal, supported herself, worked hard despite mental illness, suffered physical and emotional abuse.
18. He backs up Geffner. Throws DeMarte under bus.
19. Travis was responsible for his own murder because she didn’t kill other boyfriends.
10 minute break.
More from Nurmi:
1. About remorse.
2. Jodi didn’t want to expose Travis.
3. Her life is worth saving.
4. It’s the individual decision of each juror to choose life or death.
5. Puts up a pic of Jodi with her dog and asks if they can kill her.
6. Pic of Travis and Jodi- says it’s tragic that 2 people may die (Juan objects).
7. He reads from journals. (She promised Travis she wouldn’t write negative stuff).
8. Repeats that she is remorseful.
9. Says Travis could fill a room with love…this is a verdict of love and compassion.
10. Nurmi ends with: “Will you kill the woman Travis loved?”
The Jury gets final instructions. Jurors #2 and #18 are chosen as alternates (they do not deliberate with the rest). The jury makeup: 8 women and 4 men. Jurors will deliberate from 9ish to 4:30. No Fridays. Many court watchers say Arias was smiling as she left, also saying: “I love you” to her mom. Now we wait.
Nurmi started the morning with these main themes: Arias becomes whatever her men want, this verdict is your moral choice, and her fate is in your hands (the jury’s). Some other points made by Nurmi:
1. Jodi is mentally ill. (He brought this up repeatedly).
2. Travis was a sociopath who used Jodi for sex.
3. Travis was sexual before Jodi (with Deanna) and (allegedly) used porn. This caused a struggle within regarding his religious beliefs.
4. Jodi was his dirty little secret.
5. Travis was seeing other women at the same time as Jodi.
6. Travis called Jodi “soulless”, “whore”, “slut”, “three-hole wonder.” Then the next day he would “love” her.
7. Jodi claims physical violence. Nurmi states Dr. DeMarte “…stepped out of her league.”
8. Puts down Dr. DeMarte for implying the violence didn’t happen because no one saw it. He brings up the Ray Rice video and how it (the violence) was much worse after the video was seen.
9. Nurmi asks why the relationship ended the way it did–because of Travis.
10. Jodi’s other relationships ended peacefully.
11. Travis said he feared Jodi then had her over at his house.
12. Nurmi goes into the porn videos and then the video with Jodi where he had her in braids.
Lunch Break
After lunch- Nurmi is still up:
1. He reviews what he said in the morning.
2. Three Doctors (with over 30 years experience) said she had PTSD while Dr. DeMarte (with one years experience) said she didn’t.
3. More on her mental illness. It took a long time for her to admit what she did because she couldn’t imagine doing that to another human.
4. Jodi is remorseful.
5. Nurmi is reading Jodi’s secret testimony and when addressing the Alexander family they get up and walk out.
6. Nurmi puts up a picture of Jodi as a young girl and asks if they kill a girl who grew up under horrifc events.
7. Nurmi puts up slides of ‘happy’ Travis and Jodi and ends urging the jury not to do it (kill her).
After Nurmi ends the Alexanders return, there is some confusion, Jodi is crying so recess continues. Now there’s an issue with a juror.
After Break: Juan is up:
1. He quotes Nixon regarding the men that landed on the moon (Apollo 11) and then says stories Jodi told were fairy tales.
2. Juan says the sex act with pictures of boys is not true.
3. Travis suffered and the jury are duty bound to accept her conviction and the aggravating factors of especially cruel killing.
4. Juan is putting up the horrific photos of Travis saying he did suffer.
5. He brings up Jodi’s suidcie attempt where she stopped because the cut from a razor was too painful. How painful where all the wounds to Travis?
6. Juan says the case is about murder, not masturbation.
7. He says experts can be wrong.
8. Juan says she is so remorseful she made up a story about Travis masturbating to a child’s pic.
9. He points out no physical abuse was in her diary. Even the day after he ‘broke her finger.’
10. Jodi told Abe she was “dabbling in Mormonism.”
11. He points out how unprofessional Geffner was (in calling Dr. DeMarte ‘asinine’).
12. Juan says it’s unbelievable that when Jodi was being choked she would sit back and say “I don’t want to hurt him.”
13. Geffner did not do his own work.
14. Jodi is the only source for all this info.
15. Juan asks the jurors not to be blinded by her lies.
16. Defense objects (for the 4th time- Juan never objected Nurmi).
Recess.
Back to Juan:
1. Juan recaps.
2. He shows the Abe letter that has no e-mail address on it. Trying to manipulate Travis.
3. Jodi knew about Lisa so Travis wasn’t cheating. And if he was then she was too.
4. Going over testing and how Jodi lied.
5. She was diagnosed with PTSD on an event that never happened.
6. Brings up all her lies again.
7. Text from travis about the porn shoot is fraudulent,
8. Juan shows her coded message from jail.
9. Juan tells jury they are not supposed to consider Travis’ character, just Jodi’s.
10. Tells jurors to look at her character, record and history. Accuses defense of trying to distract them.
11. Dr. DeMarte said there was no domestic violence.
12. Juan continues to blast Dr. Geffner.
13. He is going over mitigating factors saying there is nothing to corroborate them.
14. He brings up the e-m’s and calls after Travis was dead.
15. They both enjoyed the sex, there was no abuse. If there’s no abuse there’s no PTSD.
16. Juan brings up how despite her age she had many boyfriends and jobs, was mature and smart.
17. She manipulated the psych test.
18. Having Borderline Personality Disorder does not give you an excuse –Nurmi objects.
19. He addresses another mitigator- her child hood of abuse- Juan says she left the house not because of abuse but because she was grounded. He says she was spoiled.
20. Juan says Jodi isn’t remorseful.
21. Juan puts up the slashed neck picture, then Jodi as a child.
22. He mentions impact statements from family- will never see/hear him again.
23. Juan closes with: “Do your duty and return a verdict of death.”
We are done for the day. Jury is gone and people in the court are saying they can hear the sisters crying in the victim room.
I am still catching up on what has been yet another long trial. I just found an article (link below) which indicates that Arias turned down her last chance to address the jury yesterday:
Arias “told the judge she wanted to speak to jurors, in a trial phase known as allocution, but only in a closed courtroom without the public and media present.” Judge Stephens said Arias cannot allocute in a sealed proceeding.
Another interesting bit of news- two jurors were released on Monday and we have no idea why. This leaves two extras for the rest of the trial (which is slated to end this week). I will have another post on what is going on in court today a little later. Welcome back trial lovers!
I was so excited to see my stats go up yesterday as Dr. Geffner had taken the stand. There’s some good info on this site about him. Please check it out and share! I have been following the trial sporadically through my Twitter account. It was nice to see Juan take on the good Doctor again. I am considering taking up what is left of this trial and blogging again. (I took some time off as my mom got sick and passed away this summer). However I am really behind and would love your input- for instance- did I see somewhere that they found porn on Travis’s computer? And Travis did e-mail someone that she was going to either kill herself or him? And who is this guy from Australia? Did Jodi testify this time? I thank you in advance!
On Monday the prosecutor confronted Pistorius about his emotional outbursts implying that it was contrived. This is from the article I will link below:
“Nel also accused Pistorius, who has wept repeatedly throughout the trial, of turning on the waterworks to gain sympathy and avoid answering tough questions.
‘Mr. Pistorius, you are trying to get emotional again,’ Nel said.”
He also said that the story Pistorius was giving was tailored to his benefit and not even probable:
“ ‘Your version is so improbable that it cannot possibly be true,’ ” he (Nel) said.”
An interesting fact I heard for the first time is that Reeva’s jeans were laid out on the bed as if she were getting ready to leave. Oscar said they were inside out as she had taken them off. Also Pistorius also had to admit that he did not check to see if Reeva was in the bed as he claimed before. Overall a very strong day for the prosecution.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel (also known as “The Bulldog”) took on Pistorius and his story starting at the end of the day Tuesday and continuing last Wednesday. Pistorius had a difficult time keeping his story straight. He also referred to the shooting as “a mistake”, prompting Nel to say “You made a mistake? You killed a person. You killed Reeva Steenkamp, that’s what you did,” Nel said. “You killed her. Won’t you take responsibility for that?” Later Nel showed a picture of the devastating head injury to Reeva and Pistorius began crying forcing another adjournment. For more on Wednesday’s testimony here’s the link:
http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-pistorius-trial-20140410,0,6497378.story#ixzz2ypaLs25m
On Friday Nel said that Reeva was standing behind the toilet door because they were still arguing right before he shot her. Pistorius responded with “That’s not true.” After Pistorius gave his account of what happened the night Reeva was killed Nel questioned why he did not check on Reeva before the shooting. He also pointed out that if Pistorius felt so vulnerable on his stumps (as he has claimed throughout the trial) then why did he approach the door where he felt an intruder was hiding? For more:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2014/04/11/oscar-pistorius-trial-prosecutor/7585611/
Oscar Pistorius took the stand yesterday and used the opportunity to show how sorry he was for killing Reeva Steenkamp. He claims he was trying to protect her. Reeva’s mom didn’t buy it. He also said that he has nightmares and is taking anti-depressants and sleeping pills. Pistorius described several incidents that he claims have resulted in him living in fear and feeling vulnerable. He finished Monday’s testimony by saying that he was happy that Reeva was a Christian and that “my God’s a God of refuge.”
Also on the stand Monday was the defense witness, Jan Botha. He disputed the prosecutor’s witness regarding Reeva’s stomach contents and the time of death.
Today Pistorius went over his version of that night, claiming he thought the person in the bathroom was an intruder. Earlier he said that he felt he was more into Reeva than she was into him. Pistorius broke down sobbing as he testified to Reeva not breathing and proceedings for the day ended.
Link for Monday: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/pistorius-trial/pistorius-i-knew-it-id-fired-four-shots-door-n74446
Link for Tuesday: http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/08/world/africa/oscar-pistorius-trial/?hpt=hp_t2
The trial has been postponed until April 7 as an assessor has become ill and hospitalized. There are no jury trials in south Africa – the judge and 2 assessors reach a verdict.
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/28/world/africa/pistorius-trial-defense/
Today the prosecution rested it’s case. The defense has said that Pistorius will take the stand. Barry Roux, defense lead attorney, asked that he have until Friday to prepare for his case. After yesterday’s damaging texts from Reeva the defense countered by presenting loving texts. Pistorius was in tears while these were read. Roux also showed video of the couple kissing and being playful days before the murder. Other witnesses expected for the defense include Pistorius’s sister and brother who arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting.
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