Jodi Arias urges Arizona jury to spare her death penalty

By Tim Gaynor

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Convicted killer Jodi Arias urged jurors on Tuesday to spare her the death penalty and sentence her to life in prison for brutally killing her ex-boyfriend in Arizona five years ago, saying she could lead a productive life behind bars.

Arias, 32, was found guilty earlier this month in the premeditated murder of Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his Phoenix-area home in June 2008. He was stabbed multiple times, had his throat slashed and was shot in the face.

In a final act in a marathon court drama that began in January, Arias urged the jury to spare her life for the sake of her family and said she had lacked perspective when she made public comments that she preferred death to life in prison.

"I made many public statements that I would prefer the death penalty to life in prison. Each time I said that, though I meant it, I lost perspective. Until very recently I could not have imagined standing before you all and asking you to give me life ... I thought I would rather die," she said.

"But as I stand here now, I can't in good conscience ask you to sentence me to death because of them," she said, pointing to her family, including her father, in court.

Following closing arguments, the case will go to the jury to decide the fate of the former waitress from California, who told jurors she was sorry for the violence she inflicted and said she could still lead a productive life.

"To this day, I can hardly believe I was capable of such violence, but I know that I was, and for that I'm going to be sorry for the rest of my life? I was horrified by what I had done, and I am horrified still," she said.

In her trial, she admitted killing Alexander but said it was in self defense after a relationship characterized by physical and emotional abuse.

During Tuesday's court appearance, she added that there were many things she could do in prison to "effect positive change" and contribute to society, and mentioned that she had already donated her long hair to a charity while in prison.

UNTHINKABLE CRIME

Her testimony came a day after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens denied requests by the defense for a penalty phase mistrial and to withdraw from the case. She also denied a motion for a stay to give the defense time to appeal her decisions to the Arizona Supreme Court.

The murder trial featured graphic testimony, photographs and a sex tape and became a sensation on cable television news with the tale of an attractive young woman charged with an unthinkable crime.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez said Arias had repeatedly stabbed Alexander for two minutes as he tried to escape from the bathroom. She then followed the bleeding victim down a hallway and slashed his throat when he was too weak to get away.

Alexander, a 30-year-old businessman and motivational speaker with whom Arias said she was having an on-again, off-again affair, knew he was going to die and was unable to resist his attacker at that point, Martinez said.

Arias has said she shot Alexander with his own pistol when he attacked her in a rage because she dropped his camera while taking snapshots of him in the shower. She said she did not remember stabbing him.

Hearing testimony last week on the impact of the slaying, Alexander's younger brother Steven told jurors that the killing had invaded his dreams and that he had been hospitalized several times for ulcers since the murder.

Alexander's younger sister Samantha, meanwhile, said thoughts of "the pain, agony, the screams and the fear" of her brother's last moments remained stuck in her mind.

Last week, defense attorney Kirk Nurmi walked jurors through eight mitigating factors they are being asked to consider as they mull Arias' punishment. Among the factors is whether Arias, who was 27 at the time of the murder and had no criminal history, had suffered abuse.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Alden Bentley and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jodi-arias-expected-address-jury-considers-death-penalty-154931530.html

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