Death Penalty News

NEWS (7/17/20) — Arizona: Former Maricopa County homicide prosecutor Juan Martinez, who has repeatedly been cited for misconduct in death-penalty prosecutions, has been disbarred.  Martinez consented to the action by the State Bar of Arizona, avoiding a public hearing on multiple charges of sexually harassing female co-workers in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.  The disbarment trial was also expected to include evidence that, during the high-profile capital murder trial of Jodi Arias, Martinez leaked information to a blogger with whom he was having a sexual relationship and then lied to investigators about their relationship. Martinez’s disbarment comes less than three months after the Arizona Supreme Court had reprimanded him on findings of prosecutorial misconduct in five different capital cases.  Martinez is one of at least six prosecutors who have been named prosecutor of the year by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Committee whom...

(CNN) -- The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld Jodi Arias' murder conviction and life sentence in the 2008 killing of her ex-boyfriend, rejecting her assertions that she was denied a fair trial. Arias was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for killing her ex-boyfriend, 30-year-old Travis Alexander. His body was found -- stabbed, shot in the face and slit in the neck from ear to ear -- in the shower of his Mesa, Arizona, home. Now 39, Arias appealed her conviction and sentence, arguing partly that trial publicity -- including live media coverage of the proceedings -- and a prosecutor's alleged misconduct deprived her of a fair trial and impartial jury. In a 29-page ruling and a 16-page memorandum Tuesday, a three-judge panel found, in part: • The prosecutor did engage in misconduct by being hostile and aggressive "with each witness whose testimony was inconsistent with the state's theory of the case." • Still...

Sammantha Allen In the end, the jurors felt they had no choice but to sentence Sammantha Allen to death for the brutal 2011 murder of her 10-year-old cousin, Ame Deal. The Phoenix woman had been on trial in Maricopa County Superior Court since May, one of four family members charged with disciplining the girl by forcing her to do exercise in sweltering July heat and then locking her in a 31-inch-long footlocker overnight. "The pictures of the victim stayed in our minds," said juror Ann Ospeth. "I think the thing for us was the victim and all the things her life entailed." It demanded a death penalty, the jurors agreed. "We were following what the law stated," said juror Amanda Heath. And indeed the jurors felt that Allen should be punished to the max. They also found aggravating factors for the four underlying child-abuse counts against Allen, which allowed the judge to impose harsher sentences for those charges. Superior C...

Jodi Arias After a two-week holiday hiatus, the Jodi Arias  sentencing retrial got underway this morning … …for about three minutes. While the jury was waiting in the wings and families were waiting in the courtroom, Maricopa County Superior Court Sherry Stephens held yet another one of her private confabs with the attorneys, her white-noise machine fully engaged so that no one in the courtroom could hear them. Then came a recess. Then came yet another private meeting with attorneys in her chambers. Then the jury was sent home for the day. That ca-chinging sound you hear is the taxpayers' ongoing and ever increasing tab for this extravaganza. By my count, Monday was Day 21 of the Arias sentencing retrial, a hearing that began in September and was supposed to wrap up in three to six weeks. Of course, it wouldn't be necessary at all if county prosecutors would drop their push to put Arias to death. The first jury – the one that heard the entire ca...

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 secr...

Jodi Arias More than a year after she was found guilty of murdering her ex-boyfriend, Jodi Arias is back for her death penalty trial . The 34-year-old Arizona woman is facing a new jury who will decide whether or not she deserves the death penalty — something the original jury couldn’t agree on. Lawyers are expected to make their opening statements on the case on Tuesday. To be clear, Arias is not on trial over the murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, who was stabbed 29 times and suffered a gunshot wound to the face at his home in Mesa, Arizona, in 2008. Arias contended that she killed Alexander in self-defense. The previous jury, however, rejected that claim. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in May 2013, and that conviction still stands. However, the previous jury became deadlocked during the sentencing period, torn between the death penalty and life in prison. According to CNN, a source close to the previous jury said the vote was 8-4 in favor of the de...

In Arizona, 119 inmates call death row home, and the majority of them have been locked up for several decades. The last 10 Arizona inmates who were executed spent an average of more than 20 years in a Florence super maximum security facility within Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman called the Browning Unit. "Our clients are in their cells for all (day), except they get out three times a week for one hour," Natman Schaye, senior capital trial counsel of the Arizona Capital Representation project, said. Schaye helps Arizona's death row inmates with both their state and federal appeals. He said it is a lengthy process that begins once a jury sentences an inmate to death. "You then have a direct appeal," he said. "Then there is a post-conviction (review) back in state court that is looking at whether the trial was done correctly. That gets appealed again, and then it goes to federal court. So, it goes on and on." Debra Milke's c...

Jodi Arias Jodi Arias’ guilt has been determined . The only thing that remains to be decided is whether she dies for killing her ex-boyfriend. More than six years after the death of Travis Alexander, and more than a year after Arias was convicted of murder, a second penalty phase to determine her punishment gets under way on Monday with jury selection. Arias acknowledged that she killed Alexander in 2008 at his suburban Phoenix home, but claimed it was self-defence. He suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, had his throat slit and was shot in the head. Prosecutors argued it was premeditated murder carried out in a jealous rage when Alexander wanted to end their affair. The 34-year-old former waitress was found guilty last year, but jurors could not agree on a sentence. While Arias’ murder conviction stands, prosecutors are putting on the second penalty phase with a new jury in another effort to secure the death penalty. If the new jury fails to reach a unanimous decision, th...

Jodi Arias no longer wants to represent herself in the upcoming 2nd penalty phase in her murder case, according to a new court filing. The 3-page document by her court-appointed attorneys notes that Arias is relinquishing her right to serve as her own lawyer, "effective immediately upon filing." Judge Sherry Stephens previously granted Arias' motion to serve as her own attorney after conflicts arose with one of her lawyers over trial strategy. Attorney Kirk Nurmi then sought to quit the case, noting in a motion that "a completely fractured relationship between counsel (and client) now exists."

Jodi Arias (Reuters) - An Arizona judge agreed on Monday to allow convicted murderess Jodi Arias to represent herself during a sentencing retrial to determine if she will face the death penalty for killing her ex-boyfriend in 2008, a court spokesman said. Judge Sherry Stephens granted the request by Arias during a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court, allowing her to act as her own lawyer when the retrial begins in September, said spokesman Vincent Funari.

A jury will likely decide this month whether notorious murder defendant Jodi Arias should get the death penalty for murdering her ex-boyfriend. It would be unusual if she were executed. In the last century, only 40 women have received the death penalty in America — 13 have been executed since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The total number of executions in the United States since 1976 is 1,343. BI looked into the stories of the 13 women on death row since the mid-'70s, many of whom killed their lovers. Click here to read the full article Source: Business Insider, Sept. 1, 2013

PHOENIX (AP) - The judge in the Jodi Arias murder trial declared a mistrial in the penalty phase Thursday after the jury reported for a second time that it was deadlocked on whether to sentence her to life in prison or death for killing her boyfriend in 2008. The judge scheduled a retrial for July 18.  A new panel likely will be seated to try again to reach a decision on a sentence - unless the prosecutor takes death off the table agrees to a life sentence.