Does anyone think that her testimony is a combination of her fellow inmate's input? IIRC, didn't FCA get her defense strategy frm fellow inmates as well as the Baez referral?
I dunno. There's a lack of depth to her testimony I would expect from a true abuse victim...everything is very superficial but also very 'expected' - in so much that you can find it in any book or website describing living in an abusive relationship.
Abuse is messy. It is awful to try and describe not only the events that happened to you but how you allowed yourself to stay through it all. It's a combination of defense, justification, and discombobulation all mixed together. Initially the onus for the abuse is put on yourself and not the abuser. Yet it seems Jodi was aware she was being abused for the entirety of her relationship. It's unusual not to justify, rationalize, and minimize the abuser's behavior for quite some time, to the point of denying it altogether. We 'hear' her doing that but the whole time the responsibility for Travis' behavior rests squarely with him. It's contradictory. She states she believes he was confused, having a spiritual crisis, etc. The majority of abuse victims with whom I am familiar would internalize that prior to looking for blame elsewhere. 'What did I do to upset him?', 'Maybe I shouldn't have worn that dress?', 'He's right. I do talk a lot.' Abuse is insidious. You don't know it isn't normal at first because it's so gradual.
If she spoke to other DV victims as a psychopath she is incapable of expressing the emotions I would expect in relation to her testimony. She's able to recount tales of abuse like a McDonald's order - every survivor is different but most I know would be experiencing, and displaying, an
immense amount of emotion on that stand. As a survivor, Arias
should be angry...yet she's calm and relatively rational talking about someone kicking her in the ribs, forcing her to have degrading sex, demeaning her in front of others, etc.