The reason JSS is letting the DT basically do anything they want was cleared up for us back when she gave her reason why she broke the Constitution. I have it clearly documented below for us to see in the COA opinion below.
She is so terrified of Appeals, she is letting the DT get away with anything they want. And that is way wrong IMO.
A solid but firm other judge could have still run an Appeal-proof trial and yet not allow the DT to get away with some of the crud they have.
A judge is supposed to be fair to both parties. A judge could have taken valid legal steps to prevent the DT from a lot of the trashing of Travis, trashing his reputation, trashing the Prosecuter, and trashing the Prosecuter's reputation, etc. So much of it had no business being in this trial because it was unlrelated to anything and unproven (i.e., child *advertiser censored*). It was well within JSS' rights to stop a lot of what went on, but her fear of appeals drove her to allow things from the DT that should not have been allowed by the DT.
Here was her reason that was stated clearly in the COA Opinion. Read carefully as the COA describes exactly why the trial court (JSS court) broke the constitution.
In a nutshell....She is way too afraid of future Appeals. So much so, she is making bad decisions like this one where she broke the constitution.
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"Although expressing concern that Arias was being manipulative, the court
stated it had considered the potential legal ramifications if an appellate
court later determined that Arias did not voluntarily waive her right to
present evidence in mitigation. As a result, the court closed the proceeding
for Arias’ testimony.
¶14 Although the court did not specifically find a clear and
present danger to a fair trial before an impartial jury, we infer the court
considered Arias’ refusal to testify in a public proceeding and its potential
legal implications to be a clear and present danger. We disagree with the
implicit finding"
http://www.courtchatter.com/2014/12/jodi-arias-court-of-appeals-opinion.html
