I've been reading an article about the Wendy Andriano case. The jurors decided that Wendy Andriano, a mother, should be sentenced to death. Some interesting bits from the article.
"They then heard six days of testimony on mitigating factors, reasons her life should be spared.
They gathered in the jury room Dec. 16 to consider whether there were reasons for sparing Andriano's life.
It took four days.
The sometimes-heated deliberations dramatically changed the case's outcome, with a split jury gradually shifting toward the death verdict.
When the deliberations began, the nine women and three men took a vote. Only three supported a death sentence, with four favoring a life sentence and the others undecided, said juror Mary Fobes, 74, of Mesa.
After one day, the jury went home for a three-day weekend that some called full of soul searching.
When they reconvened, Catalano gave a pivotal speech outlining his reasons for supporting a death sentence, and the vote swung to 11-1 in favor of execution, Fobes said.
But the jury was on the verge of a deadlock, with one holdout, a senior citizen from Gilbert, saying he was adamantly against the death penalty.
On the third day of deliberations, jurors took turns discussing each of 23 reasons listed by the defense for sparing Andriano's life, the mitigating factors, weighing whether they were sufficient cause for leniency.
They included that Andriano was a good mother to her children and had signed up at age 19 for missionary work when in Mexicali, Mexico, for the 91st Psalm Church, now the Harvest Family Church in Casa Grande.
Catalano said he gave all the mitigating factors some weight, but in the end, they were not enough.
"Does a good mother brutally murder her husband?" he said.
Percy said she also considered the arguments against execution, but on balance, "we could not find mitigating factors that overwhelmed the cruelty. To me, to everybody there, the knife wound was the crowning blow. She had three chances to back off."
As the third day of deliberations ended, Fobes said she told the holdout juror, a Gilbert senior citizen, "Wendi has manipulated you. He said, 'Yes, I know.' "
The next day, the holdout gave a short speech saying he changed his mind. He declined two requests for an interview. "
http://www.nlada.org/DMS/Documents/1106668066.47/0124deathjurors24.html
Paul Sanders take from yesterday.
