Phoebeb...here are my thoughts on this after mulling over this over the weekend:
The 4 for Life, and probably all of the jurors, think there is something not right with CMJA, as in not right in her head. Her interviews, her time on the stand, her behavior in court...all lead to the conclusion that there "just not something right with that GIRL."
But in the guilt phase and aggravation phase, they couldn't really think about that. I mean, obviously she committed the crime and she pre-meditated it. That is just the fact. And obviously the crime was extremely cruel...that is also a fact.
In the mitigation phase, they could think about it. And specifically the 4 though, this girl is almost crazy or just so out-of-it. How can we put this person to death, who doesn't even seem to realize the gravity of what she's done? I FIRMLY believe this is what was holding them back. And to back up their intuition, they made themselves believe that SOMETHING MUST have happened to her to make her this way. THey began to look for justifications to explain Jodi's PSYCHO - such as well, maybe somthing happened to her when she was a child.....maybe there is some truth to her child abuse stories. Maybe all her boyfriends used her, and that set her over the edge. I'm not saying this is rational thinking - I'm saying these people were willing to go out on a limb and believe things IN ORDER TO BACK-UP THEIR FEELING ABOUT HER GENERAL CRAZINESS.
And in the end, they coulnd't put a "crazy" person to death.