Jodi Arias jurors: 'Penalty should have been death'

Jodi Arias will spend life in prison, not because of a jury sentence, but because a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether to sentence her to death for the murder for her lover, Travis Alexander.

Judge Sherry Stephens declared a mistrial shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday, saying jurors repeatedly indicated they could not reach consensus.

Jurors later spoke to the media and said that 11 of the 12 were in favor of the death penalty. There was one holdout, a woman, who other jurors said they believed had an agenda.

"The 11 of us strived for justice, but to no avail," a juror, who was not identified, said. "We absolutely feel the penalty should have been death."

Alexander's sisters were seen sobbing in the courtroom during Thursday's proceedings. After leaving the courtroom, the family walked by the media. Tanisha Sorenson, one of Alexander's sisters, said, "The real justice will be in the afterlife when Jodi burns in hell."

Arias has been in trial – a sentencing retrial, actually – since October.

The final 12 of original jurors — five were dismissed over the five-month-long process and two were designated alternates a week ago when closing arguments ended — deliberated for three days, but reached impasse late Tuesday morning. Stephens sent them back to the jury room to try again.

This morning, they called it quits and Stephens declared a mistrial. Under state law, Arias automatically will be sentenced by Stephens to life in prison. Arias' formal sentencing hearing has been scheduled for April 13. Stephens will decide if the sentence should be "natural life" or if Arias is eligible for release after 25 years.

It was the second time a jury hung on life or death for Arias, 34. A 2014 jury in her first trial also reached impasse. Under state law, Arias cannot be tried again and must be sentenced to life in prison.

The Alexander family handed a brief statement to the media after leaving court. It read:

"Travis Alexander's surviving brothers and sisters Gary Alexander, Dennis "Greg" Alexander, Tanisha Sorenson, Samantha Alexander, Hillary Wilcox, Steven Alexander and Allie Iglesias are saddened by the jury's inability to reach a decision on the death penalty.

However, they understand the difficulty of the decision, and have nothing but respect for the jury's time. They appreciate Deputy Count Attorney's Juan Martinez and appreciate the outpouring of support they have received from the public.

Without the public's support, it would have been impossible for the family to attend trial over the past many years while the case worked its way through the justice system.

The siblings request that their privacy be respected. They will not be making any further statements or participate in any interviews at this time."

It has taken 2 1/2 years to reach this point.

Alexander, 30, was found dead in the bathroom of his Mesa home in June 2008. He had been shot in the head, stabbed nearly 30 times, and his throat was cut from ear to ear. His body sat there for five days before it was discovered by friends.

Those same friends immediately pointed to Alexander's former girlfriend, Arias, whom Alexander described as a stalker, even though he would travel with her on trips and invite her to his house for late-night trysts. Investigators found photographs from the last one — naked shots of both Alexander and Arias, as well as photos of Alexander in the shower minutes before he was killed. One photo even showed his inert body on the floor next to Arias' stockinged foot.

Even before the first trial began, TV crime maven Nancy Grace labeled Arias' case as the new Casey Anthony trial, referring to the high-profile, televised case of a young Florida mother acquitted of murdering her daughter.

The Arias trial began in January 2013 and was live-streamed around the world over the Internet. It quickly became a media circus. The prosecutor, Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Juan Martinez became a media hero. Defense attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott became media goats, as did nearly every witness they called to the stand.

Jodi Arias, 34, arguably ended up as the most hated woman in America.

In May 2013, Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. The jury did not believe her claim of self-defense, and they determined that the murder had been committed in an especially cruel manner, an aggravating factor written in state statute that qualified her for the death penalty. But that jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether to sentence her to life or to death.

The defense and prosecution spent the next year and a half wrestling over details of the sentencing retrial, finally impaneling a second jury in October 2014 to impose only the sentence. But even without having to determine Arias' guilt or innocence, the second trial took as long as the first.

The second trial focused not on the crime, but the psychological makeup of the defendant and the victim. Arias was painted by the defense as a compliant, mentally ill woman with borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Alexander was portrayed as a sex and pornography addict who was physically, sexually and emotionally abusive to her.

The prosecution disputed it all, except for the borderline personality disorder diagnosis, but Martinez refused to accept that it should keep her from death row.

Martinez appealed to the jury on Tuesday. Nurmi finished his closing argument just before noon on Wednesday.

The final decision was up to the jury.

Kathy Brown, who had her cane signed by Martinez during the first trial said she initially began coming to the hearings because she has a relative on death row and, "wanted to see how it worked."

Brown, 51, said she initially came in with an open mind but couldn't help but support the Alexander family.

"She mutilated him," Brown said. "She literally tore him apart."

Brown was in tears after leaving the court house and was comforted by fellow supporters.

Another Alexander family supporter, Paul Sanders, 53, said he was a juror in the Marissa DeVault trial. He's been coming to the Arias sentencing retrial since August, as he wanted to see the process of the case.

"The wails from the front row really sent the message of how painful this is," Sanders said. "It's been going on for them since 2008. A hung jury has got to feel like a knife to the heart."

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