Jodi Arias Deemed Eligible for Death Penalty as 'Extreme Cruelty' Proven by Prosecution
The same jury that found Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder now says that she is eligible for the death penalty. It was a hard day of testimony yesterday, one that left nearly the entire courtroom in tears.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez showed the jury, and the rest of the courtroom, images of Travis Alexander's body. He had been stabbed 29 times, had his throat slit from ear-to-ear, nearly causing decapitation, and was shot in the head. Martinez made sure the room saw all of those images and gave graphic detail as to what Alexander experienced in his last few minutes.
"The last thing he saw before he lapsed into unconsciousness… was that blade coming to his throat. And the last thing he felt before he left this earth was pain," Martinez said. "She made sure she killed him by stabbing him over and over and over again."
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Martinez had the room remain silent for two minutes, which was the length of time it took Arias to kill Alexander.
"Does that seem like a short period of time? It was an incredibly long period of time to be continually stabbed, to be continually followed. He was stabbed in the heart, chased down and then he had his throat slit. Those approximately two minutes that we talked about must have seemed like two lifetimes," Martinez argued.
A medical examiner was called to testify and stated that Alexander was definitely alive when Arias began her vicious assault, and that he was able to see Arias coming at him with the knife. Alexander was in front of a mirror at some point and could see her coming at him, then repeatedly stabbing him in the back of the head.
The trial resumes today, with Alexander's family and friends expected to be called to testify. The defense is likely to call Arias' family to the stand as well, in a final attempt to save her life.
