The Jodi Arias trial is the gift that keeps on giving. On Thursday, Arias made her first court appearance since a May jury deadlocked during the penalty phase of her trial.
The Maricopa County, Arizona jury in the first Jodi Arias trial simply couldn’t decide whether Arias should receive life in prison without parole or the death penalty for the brutal murder of boyfriend Travis Alexander.
The often-expensively made-up and well-dressed Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8 in a June 2008 shooting and multiple stabbing slaughter of Alexander in his Phoenix, Arizona home.
On Thursday, the public saw her in an entirely different light as she appeared in shackles and prison stripes, surrounded by multiple jail officers.
But the new hearing didn’t settle much. At the moment, there’s a tentative July 18 date for the new penalty phase trial.
An ABC report said that Arias’s defense team wants to push back the new trial to January 2014 because of scheduling conflicts. But the prosecutor Juan Martinez wants to get started picking a jury this summer.
However, the Thursday appearance seemed to be an unproductive non-event. An AP report said that the lawyers met privately in Judge Sherry Stephens’ chambers, out of view of the press.
A new Jodi Arias trial hearing will occur on July 18.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery had already told AP last week that the prosecution team remains committed to seeking the death penalty for Jodi Arias.
The Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott defense team gave a statement to The Arizona Republic earlier this month questioning the county’s use of taxpayer resources to continue the fight to put Arias to death. The county has already paid the court-appointed team $1.7 million to defend Arias.
Death penalty fights aren’t cheap, and that price tag can only grow.
Yet for now it looks like the new Jodi Arias trial is still on.
And that’s only good news for the makers of Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret , a Lifetime biopic that will premiere on Saturday June 22. Tanya Raymonde will play the part of Jodi Arias.
Will you be watching, or have you had quite enough of the Jodi Arias trial?
[Tanya Raymonde photo by Featureflash / Shutterstock.com ]