I agree. I think it was a pre-planned appeal issue. In fact I think she tried to use her entire testimony, from insisting on a closed courtroom to walking to the witness stand in restraints as a way to plant a poison pill into the trial for a successful appeal. Her attorney's probably expected JSS to deny the closed courtroom (though in light of the COA's decision that appeal would probably have been unsuccessful), but having granted it, permitting her to walk to the stand would allow her to later claim that some jury members may have seen her restraints and may have been influenced by them. Personally I don't understand the logic, but apparently the law sees it differently. I mean, the jury is required to accept that she's guilty of first degree premeditated specially cruel murder, yet it's supposed to be 'prejudicial' to see her not wearing street clothes or in seeing her in restraints. It's a mixed message and places a potentially confusing burden on the jurors to decide how much weight to place on each of the two conflicting narratives about the defendant the court is placing before them.
AZL ...or any WSers who may know:
What happens if JA is hospitalized before the sentencing? TIA
I thought it was funny when you was told to go to the stand before the jurors were called in and she picks up her sweater and box of Kleenex and heads for the stand. The way she did it, and walked to the stand seemed like she was pouting. Lol
'Mental breakdown' in this case is the politically correct term for the temper tantrum of a spoiled, entitled brat who just stopped getting her way due to her own abuse of the generous privileges she had and could have continued to have had she behaved according to the rules.
