Regarding:
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press
Updated 5:32 pm, Friday, May 24, 2013
PHOENIX (AP) They were 12 ordinary citizens who didn't oppose the death penalty. But unlike spectators outside the courthouse who followed the case like a daytime soap opera and jumped to demand Jodi Arias' execution, the jurors faced a decision that was wrenching and real, with implications that could haunt them forever.
In an interview Friday, jury foreman William Zervakos provided a glimpse into the private deliberations, describing four women and eight men who struggled with the question: How heinous of a killing deserves a similar fate?
"The system we think is flawed in that sense because this was not a case of a Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson," Zervakos told The Associated Press.
~Snipped~
Zervakos described a deliberations room full of tears and spinning moral compasses as each juror struggled to come to grips with their own beliefs about what factors including Arias' young age at the time of the killing and her lack of criminal history should cause them to show mercy and spare her life.
"You've got Travis Alexander's family devastated, that he was killed, that he was brutally killed. You've got Jodi Arias' family sitting in there, both families sitting and seeing these humiliating images and listening to unbelievably lurid private details of their lives, and you've got a woman whose life is over, too," Zervakos said. "I mean, who's winning in this situation? And we were stuck in the middle."
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/artic...ath-decision-unfair-4545378.php#ixzz2UMFjUzOZ
My two cents~
A RANT I WISH THESE JURORS COULD READ~
I think this foreman is an idiot---and a whiner. I am sorry but I do. I blame the laws in part for their failure to allow the prosecution to present ALL the facts of the case. The defense is allowed to present all manner of truly ridiculous pap in the name of "mitigation" of the defendant, not to mention the huge lies about Travis---NON EXISTENT slander that made up most of their case!
In the first place, Jodi was no kid when she killed Travis. She was in her late 20's. I'll bet if you looked at statistics, most murders are committed when killers are in their 20's and 30's. I STILL MAINTAIN THAT IF THIS WERE A MAN, THE DEATH PENALTY WOULD HAVE BEEN A NO BRAINER.
Mercy? Mercy? This jury really had misplaced sentiments, and have attributed to Jodi a level of humanity that SHE DOES NOT POSSESS.
Almost everyone of Travis' friends who met Jodi could sense that she was "not right", that she was "bad news" and many warned him----not one or two people, but many!
Some had reactions of her being "off" to downright "evil", but almost all said she was MANIPULATIVE.
This is a person who was bad news and exhibiting psychotic behavior for many years before Travis came into her life. She was a liar and a stalker long before she met him.
This jury was not shown in no uncertain terms that Travis was NOT abusive; that the few times he lost it with Jodi, he called her things because of HER ABUSE OF HIM! SHE was the stalker. SHE was the manipulator. She lied repeatedly, sneaked around and spied on him, slashed tires, went behind his back invading his bank info, emails, and phone calls. It was only AFTER she had done this to him over and over that he got hurt, angry and felt betrayed and used and called her on it! Sure, it would have been nice if the prosecution could have presented some more evidence for this that was precluded, but I 'got' it. I think most of us 'got' it from what did come out in court.
Sorry but these jurors failed. I think that most of this info was there if they bothered to look, but they let sympathy for Jodi blind them to WHAT SHE TRULY IS!
I wish---I hope that these jurors will now take the time to see all the interrogation tapes, the in-jail interviews, and hear Chris and Skye Hughes on the talk radio show tell the story of their friendship with Travis, their experiences with Jodi, and the emails they wrote.
I hope they will all take the time to see and read interviews with other men Jodi attempted to manipulate or use, with people she actually did confront and threaten, and with people who witnessed first hand her lies and a dark and soulless side of her.
Lack of criminal history? Just because Jodi didn't snap and kill someone before is hardly a reason for mercy for this monster. Even Jack the ripper had a 'first time'. Some people have NO conscience. They are not capable of empathy or mercy for anyone else. They live their entire lives using, manipulating, and lying to others to get what they want. Some people are just bad or evil through and through and they NEVER CHANGE. Jodi Arias is one of these people.
I don't think these jurors really listened to Dr. De Marte. If her testimony were not as censored as it was she probably could have really laid it on the line, but even so, she tried to get across these facts. She made it clear that Jodi doesn't have real emotions, and 'mirrors' what she sees in others. Her actions are often wildly inappropriate and always, always self-serving.
Jodi is a stone cold killer who does NOT deserve mercy. The factors mentioned by the foreman are ridiculous, and pale in comparison to her heinous actions---and some of those jurors couldn't SEE THAT?!
UGH. I am disgusted with them. They say they didn't find her believable, and yet THEY CHOSE (SOME OF THEM) TO BELIEVE SOME OF HER LIES, while dismissing others. They let emotion for the WRONG person get in the way, as they looked through rose colored glasses at someone who THEY CONVINCED THEMSELVES was a woman possibly able to be 'rehabilitated'. This guy says the system was flawed, because he felt he was in the middle between a rock and hard place. Oh boo hoo---NO WAY. YOU didn't really look at all the facts, Mr. Foreman (and the other jurors who feel this way). You had a JOB to do. You weren't supposed to be doing that at that point in the first place! The verdict and cruelty factors had already been ajudictated. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WEIGH HER 'MITIGATING FACTORS' AGAINST HER VICIOUS PRE-MEDITATED SLAUGHTER OF A MAN---(A MAN SHE HAD BEEN EMOTIONALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY TERRORIZING AND SEXUALLY MANIPULATING!)
I am more than sick at the NON-decision that they have come to. I am sickened at some of their rationales. I hope with all my heart that they DO seek out ALL the facts with regard to Jodi and Travis, and I hope that they are truly, truly horrified by her when they do.
