US killer Jodi Arias gets life term with no chance for release

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Killer Jodi Arias gets life term with no chance for release
By JACQUES BILLEAUD and JOSH HOFFNER

PHOENIX (AP) — The nearly seven-year legal saga of Jodi Arias ended Monday as a judge sentenced her to life in prison for killing her ex-boyfriend, and the victim's sisters unleashed their pain over the 2008 murder that captivated social media with its salacious details.

Three of Travis Alexander's sisters tearfully urged Judge Sherry Stephens to impose the harshest penalty available against Arias. They described Arias as "unrepentant" and "evil" and lashed out at her for smearing Alexander's name.

As Arias was leaving the courtroom, Alexander's younger sister, Tanisha Sorenson, said loudly, "Burn in hell," prompting her sister to try to quiet her down.

Samantha Alexander cried as she recalled walking into her brother's house after investigators had finished collecting evidence there. "He was there for five days," she said. "Five days he is there decomposing in the shower. I'm sure his soul was screaming for someone to find him."

Alexander family and friends hugged each other with tears in their eyes but smiles on their faces after the judge imposed the most severe of two available sentences and denied Arias a chance to be eligible for release after serving 25 years.

Before the sentence was handed down, Arias gave a rambling statement in which she stood by her testimony and accused police and prosecutors of changing their story during the investigation. She said she was sorry for the pain she caused Alexander's family and friends.

"I'm truly disgusted and I'm repulsed with myself," Arias said, recalling the moment she put a knife to Alexander's throat.

She has acknowledged killing Alexander but claimed it was self-defense after he attacked her. Prosecutors said Arias killed Alexander in a jealous rage after the victim wanted to end their affair.

Arias, wearing black and white striped jail clothing, cast her gaze away from Alexander's sisters as they spoke to the judge, but looked at her mother as she sought leniency.

The 34-year-old was convicted of first-degree murder last year, but jurors deadlocked on her punishment.

A new jury that was picked to decide her punishment had deadlocked last month over whether she was to be sentenced to death or life in prison, leaving it up to the judge to decide whether she would ever get a chance at release.

Eleven jurors at the second trial voted for the death penalty, while one juror spared Arias' life by insisting that she be sentenced to life in prison. The holdout juror was accused by her colleagues of having a bias toward Arias.

About a dozen jurors from the two trials were in the courtroom to witness the sentencing. Defense lawyer Jennifer Willmott said she has never seen a similar situation in any of her previous trials.

Prosecutors say Arias killed Alexander after he planned a trip to Mexico with another woman. Arias shot Alexander and stabbed him nearly 30 times in his suburban Phoenix home. She was arrested weeks later and initially denied involvement.

International attention quickly followed the case after Arias gave two television interviews in which she told a bizarre story of masked intruders breaking into the home and killing Alexander while she cowered in fear. She subsequently changed her story and said it was self-defense after Alexander attacked her on the day he died. Her attorneys portrayed Alexander as a sexual deviant who physically and emotionally abused Arias.

Her 2013 trial became a media circus as details of their tawdry relationship and the violent crime scene emerged while the courtroom saga was broadcast live. Spectators traveled to Phoenix and lined up in the middle of the night to get a seat in the courtroom to catch a glimpse of what had become to many a real-life soap opera.

Jennifer Willmott, an attorney for Arias, urged the judge not to be swayed the "lynch mob from social media" that opposes her client. She pleaded with the judge for "just a possibility, a hope to live for."

Stephens was not swayed, imposing a life sentence in which Arias will begin serving in a maximum-security unit at a prison 30 miles west of downtown Phoenix. Willmott spoke to Arias after the sentencing and said she was in good spirits.

"She feels good. She's ready for the next part of her life," she said.

The Alexander family took some solace in seeing that Arias received a full life term, but they became emotional as they talked about the difficulty in enduring the trauma brought on by Alexander's murder.

"I don't wanna remember him anymore," said sister Hillary Wilcox. "Because it hurts too much to remember him alive."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-04-14

[Dannyboy666]

Hopefully she just Rots away and we re done listening to that Nauseating Waste of Humanity...

[hawker9000]

"Killer Jodi Arias gets life term with no chance for release"

... yeah, until some pin-headed judge declares the prison is overcrowded or she somehow starts going before parole boards with a record of "good behavior". "Life term" my sweet a$$! She'll be out in 10-15; 20 at the most. 'Plenty of time to write her best-seller, make a few appearances on The View, cash-in on the movie rights, and retire with more dough than any 50 of us.

And some dullards keep bangin' on about how overpaid "managers" are ...

[Credo]

No. I think your wrong. I don't think she will be getting out. You are talking about the US and you are talking about Arizona. Before she would be released, there would be a parole hearing and her family would get to testify.

She's currently occupying a small cell, alone and will have 1 hour per day, maximum for exercise, alone. She will have a long wait before she even gets to be around other prisoners.

[hawker9000]

I must admit, Arizona does have a pretty good record compared to other states. But I still very much doubt she'll actually end up doing life.

[bendejo]

The parole hearings will include photos showing what that boy looked like when she got through with him and the board will lose their breakfasts. Then there's the premediation which she admits, like driving hundreds of miles to steal her grandmother's gun. If she had killed the clerk while sticking up a gas station she'd have a better chance of parole.

If she lives to 70 they may let her out, but she would probably be better off inside: her Social Security wouldn't be enough to live on.

[zydeco]

The Jodi Arias wiki page is almost as long as the one for Neil Armstrong. Anthropologists can only wonder.

[hawker9000]

The parole hearings will include photos showing what that boy looked like when she got through with him and the board will lose their breakfasts. Then there's the premediation which she admits, like driving hundreds of miles to steal her grandmother's gun. If she had killed the clerk while sticking up a gas station she'd have a better chance of parole.

If she lives to 70 they may let her out, but she would probably be better off inside: her Social Security wouldn't be enough to live on.

Very true, but after enough season repeats, the boards will have already seen it all and the shock value will begin to fade. And she'll be suitably "remorseful" and full of contrition, and present a convincing case that she's truly reformed; rights advocates will be screaming their heads off about the abusive, NON-rehabilitational prison environment and everyone's right to a "second chance"; yadda yadda yadda yadda. And of course by then, the public at large will have completely forgotten who Jodi Arias even was, and more influenced by her tearful, pitiful plea for a new start they'll be seeing on television than by the details of her crime. Why I'll bet there are a few right here on TVF biting their tongues right now, just itching to argue that anybody who could commit such a crime must by definition be mentally ill, and therefore should be in a mental hospital (from which of course she'd be eligible for release once she's "received appropriate medical/psychological treatment") rather than a prison in the first place!