JMO - I am not at all sure by what you mean by ALV taking the case because she believed it. If you mean she believed there was DV - okay, I would agree. There are however many contradictions and I have no doubt this woman is smart enough to see them.
For example, within the first hour of her being on the stand she stated that her method was to talk with both persons (independently) involved because this is how she gets the best information closest to the truth. She did not do that in this case. Granted Travis was killed, however, she made zero effort to speak with friends or even past girlfriends to get the "context" or "big picture" of the man. Instead she relied on the words of Jodi and even worse some text messages, emails, and i. ms. as well as one recording. There is no possible way for her to know the actual meaning of the written words without proper context. She never got that, she did not even try to get it, and she was totally unwilling to even consider that it is possible that Jodi may well have prompted such words or escalated the words based on actions or unknown inputs outside of the written documents. She also applied differing standards when comparing Jodi's words and Travis' - how can this possibly be consistent with a search for the truth ?
Perhaps she was just bulled up - but she could never put the word "truth" in the same sentence as Jodi Arias. Yesterday when JM was asking if she believed Jodi told the truth - she could never say it. She found her credible or believeable instead. Semantics sure, but truth goes beyond credible and believable. She could not say it. Bottom line, she could not assign the word truth to Jodi but she spent hours assassinating the character of Travis Alexander, completely without proof and with very little truth. Character assassination, based on her own continuum is abuse.
I'm just a cabbage patch punk - don't know any of this fancy brain stuff, don't want to either, but what was clear to me is her entire testimony was centered on one thing only, and that certainly was not the truth. She did take an oath to do so.