{"id":11694,"date":"2018-07-09T00:12:16","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T04:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=11694"},"modified":"2018-07-09T00:12:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T04:12:16","slug":"jodi-arias-appeals-murder-conviction-from-circus-like-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2018\/07\/09\/jodi-arias-appeals-murder-conviction-from-circus-like-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Jodi Arias appeals murder conviction from \u2018circus-like\u2019 trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jodi Arias is asking an appeals court to overturn\u00a0her murder conviction<\/a>\u00a0in the 2008 death of her former boyfriend, saying a prosecutor\u2019s misconduct and a judge\u2019s failure to control news coverage during the\u00a0salacious case<\/a>\u00a0deprived her of the right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

In the appeal released Friday, Arias\u2019 lawyers said prosecutor Juan Martinez improperly questioned witnesses, ignored rulings on evidence and courted news coverage. They also said Judge Sherry Stephens let news organizations turn the trial into a \u201ccircus-like atmosphere,\u201d was slow to restrict journalists even when they broke the court\u2019s media-coverage rules and allowed trial spectators to become emboldened by what they saw on the livestream from the Phoenix courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court admitted that this desire to feed the unusual public interest in the trial caused the media to hound and harass the attorneys, witnesses, jurors and court staff,\u201d Arias attorneys Peg Green and Cory Engle said in the appeal.<\/p>\n

Katie Conner, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Attorney General\u2019s Office, which is handling the appeal, declined to comment on Arias\u2019 filing. Martinez didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Arias, 37, is serving a life sentence for her first-degree murder conviction in the 2008 death of Travis Alexander at his home in Mesa.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Arias attacked Alexander in a jealous rage after he wanted to end their affair and planned a trip to Mexico with another woman. Arias has acknowledged killing Alexander but claimed it was self-defense after he attacked her.<\/p>\n

The guilt phase of Arias\u2019 trial ended in 2013 with jurors convicting her but deadlocking on punishment. A second sentencing trial began in late 2014 and stretched into early 2015,\u00a0also resulting in a jury deadlock<\/a>. That required Stephens to sentence Arias to prison for life.<\/p>\n

The case turned into a media circus as salacious and violent details about Arias and Alexander were broadcast live around the world.<\/p>\n

Despite her reservations about testifying during the sentencing retrial, Arias had actively courted the spotlight since she was arrested in 2008. She did interviews on TV\u2019s \u201c48 Hours\u201d and \u201cInside Edition\u201d after her arrest and was on the witness stand for several weeks during the trial in which she was found guilty of murder. She also did a series of media interviews after her conviction.<\/p>\n

Arias\u2019 attorneys say Martinez courted journalists and spectators, signed autographs and posed for photos during the trial. \u201cThis prosecutor unapologetically \u2018played\u2019 to the audience outside as well as to those watching the livestream,\u201d Arias\u2019 lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n

They also said Martinez made an unfounded accusation that an expert witness for the defense team had an inappropriate relationship with Arias. They also said Martinez disregarded court rulings by repeating questions after the judge had overruled them.<\/p>\n

The appeal was filed after Arias tried unsuccessfully to bar the public from seeing her appellate brief.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0nypost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jodi Arias is asking an appeals court to overturn\u00a0her murder conviction\u00a0in the 2008 death of her former boyfriend, saying a prosecutor\u2019s misconduct and a judge\u2019s failure to control news coverage during the\u00a0salacious case\u00a0deprived her of […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[434,1885,5252,5253,5254],"class_list":{"0":"post-11694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-jodi-arias","11":"tag-juan-martinez","12":"tag-judge-sherry-stephens","13":"tag-phoenix","14":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11696,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11694\/revisions\/11696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}