Can Jodi Arias get a fair trial in public?

Jodi Arias

We take you now to As the Cash Register Rings, the ongoing, never-ending daytime drama that is the trial of Jodi Arias.

When we last left the convicted murderer a month ago, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens was kicking the public out of the courtroom so that Team Arias could call a mystery witness to plead for her life.

Naturally, the media objected. The doors of America's courtrooms, after all, are supposed to swing wide as juries and judges seal the fate of those who stand accused and convicted of crimes.

Naturally, the Arizona Court of Appeals agreed and last week ordered Stephens to cease with the star-chamber treatment. The appellate court even clued in the public to the identity of that mystery witness, saying Stephens must stop "closing the courtroom to the public and press during any testimony by Jodi Arias."

Yeah, Arias. It appears that Stephens actually allowed a convicted murderer to plead for her life in secret.

So, now comes the pickle - and a colossal one it is. Given that Stephens has been ordered to follow the U.S. Constitution and keep the trial open, the question arises: can Arias get a fair hearing in her life-or-death retrial?

The retrial that convened after a jury last year couldn't agree on a death sentence after hearing 4 months of testimony?

Her attorneys say no. They say 3 defense witnesses - a longtime boyfriend, a former co-worker and some guy who claims to have some perverted dirt on the victim, Travis Alexander -- are refusing to testify in public.

It seems they don't relish the threats and harassment that such exposure inevitably brings from the Arias and/or prosecutor Juan Martinez groupies who breathlessly await ever sordid detail. (Sordid details that the media breathlessly supplies, I might add.)

Arias lawyer Kirk Nurmi on Monday asked that the death penalty be taken off the table given last week's ruling that the courtroom doors must remain open.

"This ruling has further inhibited Ms. Arias' ability to present a complete defense of her life to the point that should a sentence of death be imposed by this jury, said sentence would be unconstitutional," Nurmi wrote.

Here's the thing. He's right.

While it is a tenet of the constitution that we hold trials in public, it is another that those facing prosecution - not to mention a possible death sentence -- have the right to a full and vigorous defense.

If Arias has key witnesses who are refusing to enter the center ring in this circus and they can't be compelled to testify, well then the solution is simple - and cost effective.

Take death off the table. End this retrial so that Stephens can sentence Arias to life in prison, as she could have done a year ago had prosecutors not insisted on this do-over.

Taxpayers have already spent millions of dollars defending Jodi Arias. Spare us the expense of the endless appeals that would come with a death sentence that would inevitably be overturned, on grounds that she couldn't present a full defense.

It's not like Arias is going to skate. She'll spend the rest of her life in prison. No judge or clemency board is going to set her free in 25 years, knowing that she shot her ex-lover in the head, stabbed him nearly 30 times and slit his throat. Knowing that the world will be watching.

Not even a lifetime of good behavior could win this woman her freedom.

But surely even Arias, despised on a national scale, deserves fairness.

Source: USA Today, December 2, 2014

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