My take on the self- defense claim as laid out in the defense opening statement:
Defense starts out with a bold assertion that Jodi was "forced" to kill Travis. Even bolder is the statement that Travis would have killed Jodi if she hadn't defended herself:
Jodi Arias killed Travis Alexander. There is no question about it. The million dollar questions is: What would have forced her to do it?
Throughout this trial you will hear that Jodi was indeed forced...
In just those 2 minutes, Jodi had to make a choice. She would either live or she would die.
Wilmott then implies that she is about to explain a long history of violence committed by Travis that will it make it all clear that Travis was going to kill Jodi on June 4 and "forced" her to kill him instead:
And so what would have forced her to have to take Travis' life on that awful day? In order to answer that question, we have to go back to the beginning. Back to before -- just before -- she and Travis first met.
At this point the jury is ready to hear all about the long history of sexual or physical assaults committed by Travis, so let's take a look at each instance of Travis' bad behavior the defense actually mentions, and for the sake of this inquiry let's go so far as to assume that all of these allegations of past conduct are 100% true:
But the moment that Jodi would ever even text another man or talk to another man, Travis would instantly degrade her, yell at her, embarrass her, and humiliate her. And so Jodi learned very quickly how to deal with Travis’ temper. She learned how to deal with is temper by being humble, compliant and agreeable, and that was one good way to help avoid his temper.
^^ Verbal provocation, no suggestion of violence. Jodi dealt with it by being agreeable -- no need to use physical deadly force.
...despite having sex with Jodi and saying things like he loved her, he was pursuing other women, and so because of that Jodi broke up with him.
^^ Pursued other women -- no suggestion of violence. Jodi handled it by breaking up without needing to use physical deadly force.
^^ Treated Jodi different in public, and called her names in text messages. No suggestion of violence by Travis.
Now the best evidence of Travis’ manipulation of Jodi is his insistence to others that Jodi stalked him. His insistence to others that Jodi wouldn’t leave him alone, but yet it was always at his demand, and his beckoning that Jodi spent time with him.
^^ Called Jodi a stalker. No suggestion of violence committed by Travis.
In fact, at one point during their relationship, Travis even had a t-shirt made proclaiming his ownership of Jodi. Now I know that in some circles and in some relationships, maybe that would be considered cute or funny. But if you understand the inner workings of the relationship between Travis and Jodi, that t-shirt is a perfect example of how Travis treated Jodi.
Made a t-shirt saying "Travis Alexander's" and this is supposedly the perfect example of how he treated Jodi. No suggestion of violence committed by Travis.
In April of 2008, Jodi had had enough because Jodi found out that once again Travis was pursuing other women, even though he was having her in his bed, Travis was still pursuing other women.
^^ Pursued other women. No suggestion of violence. Jodi dealt with it by moving away -- no need for her to use physical deadly force.
In fact, even though they didn’t see each other from April in 2008 until June of 2008, Travis was still able to use Jodi for his own sexual desires – through the phone and phone sex.
^^ Phone sex -- mutual and consensual. No suggestion of violence committed by Travis, they were 100's of miles from each other. Jodi responded by engaging in phone sex with him, not resorting to physical deadly force.
in this phone call he talks about his fantasies – his
fantasies with Jodi of tying her to a tree and putting it – forgive me – in her 
all the way. That’s Travis. And then, when Jodi pretends to climax during this phone call, Travis
tells her that she sounds like a twelve year old girl who was having an orgasm for the first time. And then he tells her it’s so hot.
^^ Travis describes sexual fantasies. No suggestion that Travis committed violence or that he threatened to commit violence. No suggestion that he ever acted on the fantasy.
These are comments of a man who has a real problem with the comparison with the person he portrays himself to be and who he is supposed to be versus the person his own private reality and the person who he really was.
^^ Travis kept his private life private. No suggestion of violence committed by Travis.
That's the complete list of Travis' bad acts described by the defense, and then remarkably the defense describes these acts as "continual abuse" that "forced" Jodi to kill Travis. All of these past events of non-violence are supposed to set the stage for why Jodi would have reasonably believed that Travis was going to kill her on June 4, despite never having committed a violent act against her in the past:
So, what would have forced Jodi. It was Travis’ continual abuse. And on June 4 of 2008 it had reached a point of no return. And sadly, Travis left Jodi no other option but to defend herself. On that horrible day, Jodi believed that Travis was going to kill her. He threatened to kill her, and given her experience with him she had no reason to not believe him.
Then we get to the heart of the matter; what actually happened on June 4 and how the many instances of non-violence in the past somehow aligned to force Jodi to believe that Travis was going to kill her:
And so when he tried to pull up these pictures it wasn’t working right. Well Travis’ temper flared and he took this CD and he threw it up against the wall in the den.
^^ Travis threw a CD. No suggestion that he threw it at Jodi.
Travis grabbed her and spun her around, afraid that he was going to hurt her. Jodi was actually relieved when all he did was bend her over the desk, pull her arm up behind her back, pull her pants down, and have quick and rough vaginal sex with her, ejaculating all over her back.
^^ Consensual sex between adults who had a prior sexual relationship. No suggestion that Travis did this against Jodi's will or that he harmed her. (I doubt that this even took place, but we're assuming these things are true for argument's sake)
Jodi accidentally dropped Travis’ camera, and as that camera was falling, that was enough for Travis, because he lunged at Jodi in anger, knocking her to the ground in the bathroom where there was a struggle. Jodi’s life was in danger.
^^ Although Travis had never committed any violence against Jodi in the past, we're to believe that on this one occasion he flipped out and attacked Jodi because she dropped his camera -- from a naked, sitting position from within the shower. Not only did he knock her to the ground, he continued to assault her because she dropped the camera. Even though he handled it so well when she trashed his BWM, he was going to kill her for dropping his camera.
Just one minute from the time you see the camera falling and you see the picture of Travis with blood. One minute. In that one minute, had Jodi not been forced to defend herself,
^^ That makes no sense at all. Even if you assume that everything the defense alleges in this opening statement were totally and completely true -- there's not one thing that suggests that Jodi would have had any reason to fear that Travis would kill her for dropping his camera. And even if it were true that on this one occasion, unlike every other instance in the past, Travis reacted in anger and "lunged" at Jodi and knocked her to the ground ....she could not have so quickly "defended her life" unless she had the gun and knife in her hand as she was being knocked to the ground.
It is safe to assume that the defense will present not one speck of evidence that Travis was ever violent towards Jodi. Presumably their opening statements describes their very best evidence -- and there's never any mention of Travis doing anything violent or even aggressive.
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