Retrial for Sentencing of Jodi Arias - 11/3/14 Hearing

[ohreally]

I am wondering how much testimony the secret witness got in. Maybe three hours minus sidebars and breaks? If it was an expert and Nurmi was questioning them they couldn't of gotten much pat their CVC. If it was Jodi they couldn't of gotten far either, with her long winded answers and Numri's slow style of questioning. It leaves the jurors with more than a week to have everything that Juan and the VIS really sink into the jurors minds. To me that is the positive to come out of this mess.

 

[rose222]

I think JA is the 'secret witness' although the Defense will want all their witnesses to testify in closed chambers from here on. JA is going to accuse her father the way that KC did. And I do think that ALV is back. Her bloated ego allows her to believe that JA escaped death thanks to her. She will risk her own life and testify once again for the sake of her protégé. You have sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse, PTSD, BPD, brain fogginess and scrambling of the brain. Whew!

 

[ilovewings]

Renee100, her body language spoke volumes. I felt incredibly sorry for her. She seemed almost hurt. Strange word, I know, but I think she has done everything possible to ensure a fair trial for the defendant. She has been criticised extensively for the painstaking efforts applied and now she gets unfairly thrown under the bus too. No surprise there but it must sting being under COA scrutiny. Perhaps she is injured by the challenge to her authority, in such a public way? I was interested to observe the COA judges on camera. They all sounded extremely nervous. Judge Sherry Stephens has been remarkably calm and eloquent throughout. She has seemed knowledgeable and aware - on top of everyday matters. I'd love to hear Juan Martinez' and Travis' familiy on JSS. What do they think of her?

I don't feel sorry for this judge. she should not have closed the courtroom and given in to the defense regarding secret witness testimony: she brought that challenge to her authority down on herself. She has caved in to the defense tactics time after time after time. There could not be a worse judge for this particular defendant and her defense team; manipulate, delay, manipulate, delay, obfuscate and on and on it goes. This case needs a strong authoritative judge who wouldn't allow this crap to go on endlessly.

 

[Hatfield]

Hi Kidz! Just jumping back in here from a long recess. I said during the trial that I thought Judge Sherry Stephens was just awful. I took some guff for that, but I'll say it again. This woman needs to be off the bench, and some judge who can control the courtroom needs to be on in her stead. Judge Stephens is solely responsible for wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars with, well, silliness. This latest stunt of closing the courtroom was so blatantly unconstitutional that I'm surprised it took the Court of Appeals more than 10 minutes to issue their stay.

We spotted the unconstitutional aspects of blocking out the public right as it happened way before the media appealed it. It shows we are not always wrong in our views. We have a lot of smart people here at WS and we also give the benefit of the doubt a lot of times in case there are other reasons that things happen that we may not be aware of.

Up until yesterday for the most part we have given JSS all the benefits of doubt she needed. Not any more for me. She has proven over and over again that she is doing things that waist time and money with absolutely no consideration for

-The time and stress and personal issues for the jury members
-The time and stress and emotional issues for Travis family
-The cost to taxpayers for this way too long trial
-The rights of the Victim, Victim's family
-The convicted killer needs to be sentenced

Enough. There are real steps that can immediately be taken to speed up this process and nothing is being done to speed it along. If anything, its getting worse. Enough.
IMO, another judge needs to step in and take over and get this phase finished. It would not be hard to do that.

 

[MeeBee]

JSS definitely stated at the end of that sidebar that when court resumes on the Wednesday of next week that it would be with witness testimony. Nurmi wants to file papers with the COA & they have to be filed by Friday, so JSS has given him until Friday to do that, then from Wednesday the trial proceeds.

Yeah, in hindsight, it seems she's being fair to the defense by allowing them time to file their appeal first but is still using her authority to make the defense proceed, as she should. She'd probably have made it Monday if Monday and Tuesday weren't already off days. But it's probably disappointing to her. In trying to prevent delays, she has caused more, unnecessary delays.

 

[Lochlynsmom]

Thank you for this! Nurmi wants to argue this with the COA when they have basically said no more secret testimony. Is he going to ask for a closed hearing or a side bar? How can he argue his case without revealing the secret witness and the reasoning?

This was in reply to 04009margaret
"JSS definitely stated at the end of that sidebar that when court resumes on the Wednesday of next week that it would be with witness testimony. Nurmi wants to file papers with the COA & they have to be filed by Friday, so JSS has given him until Friday to do that, then from Wednesday the trial proceeds."

 

[MeeBee]

We spotted the unconstitutional aspects of blocking out the public right as it happened way before the media appealed it. It shows we are not always wrong in our views. We have a lot of smart people here at WS and we also give the benefit of the doubt a lot of times in case there are other reasons that things happen that we may not be aware of.

Up until yesterday for the most part we have given JSS all the benefits of doubt she needed. Not any more for me. She has proven over and over again that she is doing things to waist time and money with absolutely no consideration for

-The time and stress and personal issues for the jury members
-The time and stress and emotional issues for Travis family
-The cost to taxpayers for this way too long trial
-The rights of the Victim, Victim's family
-The convicted killer needs to be sentenced

Enough. There are real steps that can immediately be taken to speed up this process and nothing is being done to speed it along. If anything, its getting worse. Enough.
IMO, another judge needs to step in and take over and get this phase finished. It would not be hard to do that.

I agree. Usually the lawyers pop in to calm us with their rational responses to our overly emotional responses to normal things. It's nice to know we aren't actually the crazy ones this time lol.

I had always defended this judge and I still like her. But when she made the decision to lock out the media, I couldn't defend that. You just can't do that unless you have a very good reason. And I thought, based on her responses to Moesser the other day when he objected, she thought that she did have a good reason and was confident the appeals court would see it that way too. Not surprised they overturned her. I have never, ever heard of a judge locking the press out of testimony.

 

[MeeBee]

Thank you for this! Nurmi wants to argue this with the COA when they have basically said no more secret testimony. Is he going to ask for a closed hearing or a side bar? How can he argue his case without revealing the secret witness and the reasoning?

If the secret witness really is Jodi, and at this point I am starting to think she already did testify based on what Juan said, then he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

 

[Lochlynsmom]

If the secret witness really is Jodi, and at this point I am starting to think she already did testify based on what Juan said, then he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

She must have concocted a doozy of a story this time around for Nurmi to go to this much trouble

 

[Hatfield]

I agree. Usually the lawyers pop in to calm us with their rational responses to our overly emotional responses to normal things. It's nice to know we aren't actually the crazy ones this time lol.

I had always defended this judge and I still like her. But when she made the decision to lock out the media, I couldn't defend that. You just can't do that unless you have a very good reason. And I thought, based on her responses to Moesser the other day when he objected, she thought that she did have a good reason and was confident the appeals court would see it that way too. Not surprised they overturned her. I have never, ever heard of a judge locking the press out of testimony.

Me too, and I still like her as a person. She seems like a nice person. I just do not agree with the way she is handling the running of this trial at all. There are steps she can take to speed it along like forcing them to come in early and work late. Or start working Fridays, Saturdays, etc. Many things can be done to make up for time lost. Its been done in many other cases. She is not doing anything at all to speed it along. It shows she has no concern for the time it is taking and the cost consequences of that time.

During the 1st trial, I really kept trying to give her benefit of doubt. Not anymore since it is finally proven by court of appeals she was wrong on at least 1 decision.

That indicates now to me that she could very well be wrong in other decisions she did not have to make. Like blocking video access of the live feed of the trial. There was no legal reason for that. We should not be left to decipher TWEETS. Its ridiculous. Years ago, twitter was not even invented. Would we be reduced to reading news reports each night. Its just ridiculous.

My biggest concern is the delays that are being agreed to without making changes to speed this along. Im thinking we will be lucky to get done by March 2015 at this rate. We really need someone else to take over and end this trial.

 

[Deleted member 122533]

I agree. Usually the lawyers pop in to calm us with their rational responses to our overly emotional responses to normal things. It's nice to know we aren't actually the crazy ones this time lol.

I had always defended this judge and I still like her. But when she made the decision to lock out the media, I couldn't defend that. You just can't do that unless you have a very good reason. And I thought, based on her responses to Moesser the other day when he objected, she thought that she did have a good reason and was confident the appeals court would see it that way too. Not surprised they overturned her. I have never, ever heard of a judge locking the press out of testimony.

I agree with much of what you say. My only hesitation is around the question of why JSS closed the court? Was this strategy on her part? It seemed unconstitutional to most people observing the trial. JSS had to know this. Or was she forced to close to avoid a mistrial? It's easy to spot that the DT have a strategy of screaming 'mistrial' as they have no credible mitigation or defense. The game has been to create a mistrial - throw out the DP case - using any excuse. Remember how Nurmi emphasises JSS' commitment to ensuring the testimony of Defense experts - by allowing secret testimony if necessary? Could it be that this order was written without due consideration that Arias would use that exception to testify secretly? Perhaps JSS then had to call the bluff of the defense- knowing the media would successfully appeal? Or am I just trying to hard to give credit to Judge Stephens as she ran a court that delivered a guilty of premeditated murder verdict before?

I'd like to know more before judging her too harshly. I wish we could hear from Juan Martinez and Travis' family. I value the opinion and contribution of everyone on this site. I'm sure the lawyers contributing have the same range of frustrations and emotions as other posters. The compassion and regard for Travis' loved ones is obvious. It pours from every page and dominates opinions. After the trial we shall learn if the prize JSS or have harsh criticisms.

 

[YESorNO]

Case Documents

Filing Date Description Docket Date Filing Party

11/3/2014 CAO - Court Of Appeals Order - Party (001) 11/4/2014
NOTE: UNSEAL THEN SEAL RECORD

https://www.superiorcourt.maricopa....rtCases/caseInfo.asp?caseNumber=CR2008-031021

 

[Hatfield]

I agree with much of what you say. My only hesitation is around the question of why JSS closed the court? Was this strategy on her part? It seemed unconstitutional to most people observing the trial. JSS had to know this. Or was she forced to close to avoid a mistrial? It's easy to spot that the DT have a strategy of screaming 'mistrial' as they have no credible mitigation or defense. The game has been to create a mistrial - throw out the DP case - using any excuse. Remember how Nurmi emphasises JSS' commitment to ensuring the testimony of Defense experts - by allowing secret testimony if necessary? Could it be that this order was written without due consideration that Arias would use that exception to testify secretly? Perhaps JSS then had to call the bluff of the defense- knowing the media would successfully appeal? Or am I just trying to hard to give credit to Judge Stephens as she ran a court that delivered a guilty of premeditated murder verdict before?

I'd like to know more before judging her too harshly. I wish we could hear from Juan Martinez and Travis' family,

I value the opinion and contribution of everyone on this site.

IMO
She could not have known in advance that the media would appeal this. So I dont agree that JSS had some planning for this at all. It was just a really bad decision because she is way way way too worried about possible appeals when she has the laws on her side.

She needs to just rely on the law she is trained on and make sound decisions fair to both parties, not just defense.

Nurmi said he is planning on appealing anyway. Its going to happen no matter what she does. She needs to quit worrrying about it and making decisions out of fear.

 

[RadarLuv]

Is there a link to this? I have been out of commission and would like to see it. TIA

Renee100, her body language spoke volumes. I felt incredibly sorry for her. She seemed almost hurt. Strange word, I know, but I think she has done everything possible to ensure a fair trial for the defendant. She has been criticised extensively for the painstaking efforts applied and now she gets unfairly thrown under the bus too. No surprise there but it must sting being under COA scrutiny. Perhaps she is injured by the challenge to her authority, in such a public way? I was interested to observe the COA judges on camera. They all sounded extremely nervous. Judge Sherry Stephens has been remarkably calm and eloquent throughout. She has seemed knowledgeable and aware - on top of everyday matters. I'd love to hear Juan Martinez' and Travis' familiy on JSS. What do they think of her?

 

[MeeBee]

I agree with much of what you say. My only hesitation is around the question of why JSS closed the court? Was this strategy on her part? It seemed unconstitutional to most people observing the trial. JSS had to know this. Or was she forced to close to avoid a mistrial? It's easy to spot that the DT have a strategy of screaming 'mistrial' as they have no credible mitigation or defense. The game has been to create a mistrial - throw out the DP case - using any excuse. Remember how Nurmi emphasises JSS' commitment to ensuring the testimony of Defense experts - by allowing secret testimony if necessary? Could it be that this order was written without due consideration that Arias would use that exception to testify secretly? Perhaps JSS then had to call the bluff of the defense- knowing the media would successfully appeal? Or am I just trying to hard to give credit to Judge Stephens as she ran a court that delivered a guilty of premeditated murder verdict before?

I'd like to know more before judging her too harshly. I wish we could hear from Juan Martinez and Travis' family,

I value the opinion and contribution of everyone on this site.

I've seen other judges in action. They are usually firm, concise, fair and unafraid of hurting feelings. It seems she lacks confidence in making swift decisions and lacks the fortitude to say NO. She does occasionally, like denying Jodi's request for a meeting and telling Laviolette she doesn't care about her problems, among other things. But Nurmi would not be having his run of the courtroom were it any other judge. I had thought this was a stylistic difference and it worked for her. I don't think it does, here.

Another thing is judges are usually, as you've been saying, very mindful of jurors and respectful of the sacrifice they're making by being there. The judge has no consideration for them or that this trial is taking a huge chunk out of their lives. Jodi's rights are obviously more important, but the judge doesn't even acknowledge them.

Someone mentioned judge Ito the other day and I'd read he was heavily criticized for allowing the OJ circus. I looked up the other day why that was. He allowed numerous objections every few minutes, allowed numerous, lengthy sidebars, and allowed the attorneys to bicker on end. That sounds very familiar. That trial took nine months. This trial, having technically started in January of 2013, has taken even longer. Almost two years. This isn't the way.

I still find the notion that she's in the defense's pocket or that she will sentence Jodi to life with parole a silly one. She's not in anyone's pocket. She's just trying to be fair but I think sometimes she doesn't know how to do that.

 

[MeeBee]

Case Documents

Filing Date Description Docket Date Filing Party

11/3/2014 CAO - Court Of Appeals Order - Party (001) 11/4/2014
NOTE: UNSEAL THEN SEAL RECORD

https://www.superiorcourt.maricopa....rtCases/caseInfo.asp?caseNumber=CR2008-031021

Wow. Wow!!! Wonder if they only mean testimony of secret witness or what? Thanks yes or no. Nurmi should have left well enough alone.

 

[Deleted member 122533]

Hatfield, your point about judges worrying about appeals is a strong one. Indecision seems to have become a theme throgh notorious public trials - resulting in some very dodgy verdicts. Yet Arias is a convicted murderer. Hopefully that part of the trial will stand all the appeals thrown at it by future Arias attorneys. I'd still like to learn more about why JSS closed the court.

 

[Hatfield]

I've seen other judges in action. They are usually firm, concise, fair and unafraid of hurting feelings. It seems she lacks confidence in making swift decisions and lacks the fortitude to say NO. She does occasionally, like denying Jodi's request for a meeting and telling Laviolette she doesn't care about her problems, among other things. But Nurmi would not be having his run of the courtroom were it any other judge. I had thought this was a stylistic difference and it worked for her. I don't think it does, here.

Another thing is judges are usually, as you've been saying, very mindful of jurors and respectful of the sacrifice they're making by being there. The judge has no consideration for them or that this trial is taking a huge chunk out of their lives. Jodi's rights are obviously more important, but the judge doesn't even acknowledge them.

Someone mentioned judge Ito the other day and I'd read he was heavily criticized for allowing the OJ circus. I looked up the other day why that was. He allowed numerous objections every few minutes, allowed numerous, lengthy sidebars, and allowed the attorneys to bicker on end. That sounds very familiar. That trial took nine months. This trial, having technically started in January of 2013, has taken even longer. Almost two years. This isn't the way.

I still find the notion that she's in the defense's pocket or that she will sentence Jodi to life with parole a silly one. She's not in anyone's pocket. She's just trying to be fair but I think sometimes she doesn't understand how to do that.

I totally agree with everything and even most of the last paragraph. I would hope she would give her LWOP if she gets the decision however at this point I am just a little concerned that she could give her LWP. I am so disappointed in how she is ruling on things for the defense that the possibility does exist for me. I cant rule it out yet.

 

[Hatfield]

Just want to take a minute to THANK EVERYONE here.

I have thoroughly enjoyed our discussions and debates. Its great when we have differening views on things because it helps us see things from different angles. WS is great because we can have healthy debates.
It is also a good learning experience too since most of us are not trained in the court of law.
It is also great to read the feedback from the real laywers we have here at WS.

THANKS TO EVERYONE

 

[MeeBee]

I do think the judge has the right to disallow cameras (remember court sketchers?) and is being pretty fair in letting it be released after the verdict (although we're kidding ourselves if we think Nurmi won't want that under seal, too).

I think Nurmi's main concerns are not the safety of trial participants or Jodi's right to a fair trial. Those are excuses. He is not comfortable with being criticized in real time for his style, appearance and questioning. He doesn't want people to see that. That's why he's still not ok with twitter, either. We can't see him but we know what he's saying, for the most part. He doesn't want any of that. I mean, Jodi testifying under seal is silly. She's in jail, she's safe. What does she have to be afraid of? (I also think it gives her a kick causing this kind of drama and getting people to clamor for her).

Wonder if the judge will compromise by allowing the press but preventing them from live tweeting and limiting them to writing articles on the happenings of the day. Most articles like that don't even cover questioning by the attorneys or anything like that, just the testimony.