USA - Arizona. Second mistrial: Jodi Arias cannot be sentenced to death

Second mistrial declared after jury deadlocks on Jodi Arias penalty. A Maricopa County jury deliberated for about 26 hours over five days. They said they started with about half of the members voting for the death penalty, eventually reached the 11-1 vote then got stuck. The holdout juror was a woman. The other jurors asked the judge on Tuesday if the woman could be replaced with an alternate, but the request was denied and jury was told to keep deliberating. None of the jurors would give their names. The identities of jurors are kept secret in Arizona. Judge Sherry Stephens announced in court that the jurors could not all come to an agreement about Arias’ fate and thus declared a mistrial. The deadlock took the death penalty off the table and left judge Stephens to decide whether to sentence Arias to life in prison or to life with the possibility of release after 25 years. That decision is expected at an April 13 hearing. Jodi Arias, 34, White, was convicted of first-degree murder in the June 4, 2008 murder of her lover Travis Alexander, 30, White. He had been stabbed dozens of times, had his throat slit and a single gunshot wound to the head. She testified that she killed Alexander in self-defense. The murder and trial received widespread media attention. On May 8, 2013, after 15 hours of deliberation, Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. Out of twelve jurors, five jurors found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, and seven jurors found her guilty of both first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder. After the conviction, On May 23, 2013, the sentencing phase of Arias's trial resulted in a hung jury, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial for that phase. The jury reached an 8-4 decision in favor of the death penalty. The sentencing retrial that began on October 20, 2014. Nearly $3 million of taxpayer money was spent during both trials. Arias' court-appointed attorneys billed the state for $2.7 million. Prosecutors say they spent more than $132,000 on expert witnesses, transcripts, travel expense and other costs, though that figure doesn't include the salary of the prosecutor.