Jodi Arias Trial Update: Graphic Images From Crime Scene Shown to Jury at Retrial, 2 Jurors Dismissed
On day one, the jurors at the sentencing retrial of Jodi Arias were warned that they would see graphic crime scene pictures along with sexually explicit photos that Arias and her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander, took of each other before she attacked him in the shower.
Arias' defense attorney Kirk Nurmi said that the photos will serve as "objective indicators" of what Arias and Alexander's relationship was all about as the defendant maintains that she was in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with Alexander, and that she had no choice but to do whatever it was that he asked of her—which includes posing for pictures while completely nude.
"You will see photographs that Mr. Alexander took of Ms. Arias," Nurmi said. "Not just any photographs. Some of them are nude photographs that were taken the very afternoon of his death … [The prosecutor] will show you these pics to shock you."
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According to the Huffington Post, Prosecutor Juan Martinez proceeded to show the pictures, along with gruesome images of Alexander with his throat slit and lying on the floor of the shower.
"She loved him so much that this is what she did to him," said Martinez as he urged the jurors to sentence Arias to death.
Arias has previously admitted that she killed her boyfriend but said that she was forced to do so in self-defense after he attacked her. She was convicted of murder last year. During her first sentencing, the jurors were divided on whether Arias should be sentenced to death. This is the second sentencing retrial for Arias, and if the jury should fail to arrive at a unanimous decision, then the judge will sentence her to spend the rest of her life behind bars.
After just the second day of the retrial, two jurors have been dismissed— one was let go due to family issues, while another was dismissed after she asked a freelance journalist if she was CNN star Nancy Grace.
As the judge has not permitted the retrial to be televised, live updates regarding the Jodi Arias case have been sent out through social media and live blogs from various media outlets.
