Chris Hughes was the guest on Tricia Griffins radio show last night and clarified a lot of things--you might want to check it out. (To be notified of the book's availability, check out
http://ourfriendtravis.com/)
IIRC, Sky Hughes was never asked to be a witness. Chris Hughes was a witness on Day 10 of the original marathon. IIRC, KN was trying to get Chris to say an email was authentic. Chris didn't believe it was, he thought JA had forged them. Chris had, I believe, told Gus Searcy that the emails were forgeries. It was a prime example of KN twisting words with partial truths to slime Travis and Chris, IMO, did a good job of letting the jury know that the evidence was questionable while not being too hostile. IIRC, sidebars were involved during his testimony.
JMO, but because ALV et al were using an email as evidence of domestic abuse, and Chris Hughes was fighting to put it in context, the DT didn't want him there. As I recall, JM was able to use Dr. D to discredit ALV's take. I'm sure other sleuthers will correct me if I'm mistaken on this point.
As well, both Chris and Sky had been interviewed by the media, and voiced their unhappiness with the DT's tactics. They tried to keep the trial from being a megaphone for the murderer's lies, and to keep Travis, the real victim of domestic violence in this case, as a normal, warm, and caring human being in the public's mind.
It takes a long time to prepare a book for publication. There are many people to approach when you are documenting someone's life. A lot of people may want to share anecdotes or express their feelings about certain details. Probably permission to use people's photographs had to be obtained. So, news of the Hughes' project would have begun to leak out before the trial was finished in any case. There is no way that anyone could have predicted how long JSS would allow the DT to drag this out.
Besides, at least two books had already been published about the case. [
Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias by Jane Velez-Mitchell (
http://www.amazon.ca/Exposed-Secret-Life-Jodi-Arias/dp/0062303996) and
Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story: A Beautiful Photographer, Her Mormon Lover, and a Brutal Murder by Shanna Hogan (
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15794866-picture-perfect)] A made for TV movie had been produced and aired.
Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret was written by Richard Blaney and Gregory Small (
http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/jodi-arias-dirty-little-secret). I'm sure it seemed to Chris and Sky that Travis's story was being forgotten, and they probably felt a strong need to balance the scales at least a little bit.
With all the lies that have been spread about Travis during this trial--in the courtroom and through some pretty malicious texts and blogs by JA's supporters, I don't see how having something positive about Travis being talked about could hurt. As I said in an earlier post, i hope that there is a lawyer who will help the Alexander family sue for damages despite the common wisdom the "you can't defame the dead". It seems to me the DT did a pretty good job of doing just that.
JA has been found guilty, and that won't change. Her lies, and those of her "experts" have been exposed thanks to the meticulous work of JM. Even though JSS and the DT have prevented a lot of evidence from being presented and have dragged this stage out to almost the length of the first trial, it's possible that JM can guide the jury to putting everything together. That word of a book written to honour Travis, to attempt to clear his name of the horrible lies about his behaviour, has become public won't affect any member of the jury, IMO, until the trial is over, the verdict is in, and jurors find out who Travis really was.