Verdict coming soon in the guilty murderer's trial of

[Big RR]

As I recall, Utah retained the firing squad in deference to the LDS (Mormon) Church (I'm not sure it it's still on the books), which requires spilling of blood on the ground for redemption (something interpreted from the Cain and Abel story, I don't recall exactly how). Gary was raised as a Mormon, and I always thought he chose the firing squad because of it. My guess is that it would be just as easy to botch a firing squad execution as a hanging--both rely heavily on the training and skill of the executioner(s).

Good for the taxpayers. Unfortunately, with mandatory appeals, it will probably cost them millions anyway.

So you'd much rather not have an extended appeals process to be sure the sentence was properly given? Why? To save some money? We waste billions on a lot of less important things; when the government is killing someone, I think we should at least make sure the law is properly complied with.

As for a governor commuting the sentence--isn't the pardon/commutation/power given to the executive to allow the people to have the final say through the political process? I'm not a big fan of it in many circumstances (like the pardoning of cronies before the executive leaves office, something done by persons in both parties), but here I can see that the public elected the governor whose beliefs on when capital punishment is appropriate are usually known it makes some sense.

[Lord Jim]

I think it's really a coin flip as to whether the defense strategy to save Arias' life; "Let's keep her on the stand for days so she can show the jury what a wing nut she is, and maybe we can get at least one of them to vote to spare her life", will prove to have been successful...

I'd have given her a better chance before, but in addition to all the lies she had to admit to telling the police, she also committed perjury while on the stand, and lied straight to the jury...(she made claims in the early part of her testimony about being forced into sexual situations that under cross she was forced to admit were false)

Juries don't tend to like that very much...

Also, yesterday after the verdict, she was somehow able to give an interview where she said she would prefer the death penalty....

Which was another transparent attempt at manipulating the jury, ("I want death so if you don't like me give me life instead") that I don't think is going to sit very well....

[oldr_n_wsr]

("I want death so if you don't like me give me life instead")

That was the first thought when I heard her interview. And since when does a newly convicted murderer get to give an interview right after conviction?

[Big RR]

Or perhaps she really wants to die; if you gave me the choice spending the remainder of my life in prison or death, I think that's what I would prefer.

[Rick]

You would prefer life and death...

[Big RR]

Perhaps the wording was cumbersome, but I meant to say I would prefer death (as she apparently has). Thanks for the chance to clear that up.

[Rick]

[Joe Guy]

I got in just a little late on this trial - Jodi was already testifying - but I've followed it ever since on HLN TV.

At the beginning she gave the police two different versions of what happened before admitting that she killed Travis Alexander - of course saying that it was in self defense.

In her first versions of the story she had said she wasn't there when he was killed and then she said she was there and two people came in and attacked Travis (and her also).

When she was on the stand she claimed that Travis was abusive and, for some reason I'll never understand her lawyers allowing her to do, she tried to get people to believe that she caught Travis watching child porn and had made quite a few statements hinting that he liked young girls. I guess she thought that was supposed to get jurors to think he deserved to die.

There was zero evidence to support that he ever tried to hurt her physically and nothing to support that he watched child porn, which should have been easy to prove.

The truth about what happened, which the evidence overwhelmingly supported, was that she planned the murder and carried it out.

Commentators and lawyers on both sides would comment often on how smart she is, and she did sound intelligent, but the evidence showed that she wasn't very smart about how to plan and carry out a murder.

During the trial I'm guessing that she probably argued a lot with her lawyers and in the end made most of the decisions that got her convicted beyond a reasonable doubt.

There were so many inconsistencies in her testimony that I don't think that even OJ Simpson's jury would have acquitted her.

[Gob]

I got in just a little late on this trial - Jodi was already testifying - but I've followed it ever since on HLN TV.

How much of the trial would be shown live?

[Joe Guy]

The entire trial was shown live.

[Gob]

Dear god!!

You are kidding me?

[Joe Guy]

I'm not kidding.

Next Wednesday they will televise the "Aggravation Phase" of the trial, which is when both sides argue as to whether or not the death penalty is appropriate.

The jury ultimately decides.

[Gob]

Reality TV at it's finest...

You guys are weird!

[liberty]

Reality TV at it's finest...

You guys are weird!

Well Gob are you now starting to understand? At least we have jury trials which is sometime good and sometime bad. Is it also a circus in your country?

[Gob]

Definitely not.

In the UK photographers are not allowed in court, but sketch artists are, the same in Aus.

[liberty]

Gob, do you remember the trial in Britain back in the fifties where an innocent man was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and hung? Best I can remember his pregnant wife was killed by the neighbor who had promised the wife an abortion. He had planned put her under and then raped her, but when she resisted he killed her, raped her and framed the husband.

[Crackpot]

The allowance of cameras in the court room are at the discression of the judge.

On a separate note is there a worldwide courtroom artist school or perhaps a global courtroom artist supply? I swerar the all have the same medium the same "paper" and the same general skill level.

[dales]

Reality TV at it's finest...

You guys are weird!

It's not a Cricket Match

[Joe Guy]

So yesterday I watched an interview with Jodi Arias from August 2008. She was in Jail after being arrested for the murder.

She went into great depth to explain how two men dressed in black with scarves over their faces broke into Travis's home while she was there and killed him. She told how one of them held a gun to her head and the two of them argued about whether or not they should kill her.

Somehow she was able to run out of the house and left Travis there to die, for which she was ashamed.

But she was scared.

Travis was found there dead five days later.

Now she is saying, Oops! I killed him but it was because he was attacking me (naked from the shower) and I didn't want people to know at first because I thought they might think I murdered him.

Oh... I get it. Why didn't you just say so at the beginning?

Makes perfect sense...

[Lord Jim]

Or perhaps she really wants to die; if you gave me the choice spending the remainder of my life in prison or death, I think that's what I would prefer.

That's easy to say Big RR, (I might say the same thing) but the stats on those actually facing that situation tell another tale...

The number of folks giving up their appeals are a tiny group versus those who fight tooth and nail to avoid being executed...