Jodi Arias Gets Life in Prison Without the Possibility of Parole

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Jodi Arias has been sentenced to a natural life sentence with no possibility of parole.

Arias was found guilty in May 2013 of murdering her on-off boyfriend, Travis Alexander, five years earlier.

Because two previous juries were unable to decide whether or not she should receive the death penalty, the final sentencing decision was up to Judge Sherry Stephens at today's hearing. Stephens had to rule on whether Arias would serve her natural life in prison or have the possibility of parole after 25 years.

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After hearing statements from Alexander's tearful sisters asking that Arias receive the maximum penalty available, the court also heard Arias' final plea to receive the possibility of parole in 25 years.

"It's my firm belief that death would bring me untold peace and freedom. If I die today, I would be free and I would be at peace," Arias said as she appeared in a prison jumpsuit in Maricopa County Court. "For years, that's exactly what I wanted. But I have to fight for my life just like I did on June 4, 2008 because I realize how selfish it would be for me to escape accountability for this mess that I created."

Arias, who was convicted of first degree murder, maintained that Alexander was trying to attack her when she stabbed him multiple times and shot him.

"To this day I cannot believe I was capable of doing something that terrible," Arias said. "I'm truly disgusted and I'm repulsed with myself. I wish there was some way I could take it back."

Because two previous juries were unable to decide whether or not she should receive the death penalty, the final sentencing decision was up to Judge Sherry Stephens at today's hearing. Stephens had to rule on whether Arias would serve her natural life in prison or have the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Arias' testimony came after Alexander's relatives tearfully urged the judge to give the convicted killer the strongest possible sentence available.

"It hurts too much to remember him alive because if I remember him, I remember too much about how he was brutally taken from us and I can't handle it," Alexander's sister, Hillary Wilcox, said amid tears in Arizona's Maricopa County Court this morning. "This is what I've had to do so I can cope."

Wilcox said that sometimes when she does think of him, she is in the shower, and, "I know that's because that's where she killed him, so I have to quickly shake it out of my head and get out of the shower."

The second sister to speak, Tanisha Sorenson, turned and directly addressed Arias, citing Arias' earlier claims in her personal journal where she said the person who killed Alexander deserved to die.

"What happened to that, Jodi?" a tearful Sorenson asked as she faced Arias.

Sorenson also told the judge that she and her relatives have been harassed by Arias' supporters throughout the trial, saying that they "send me pictures of my brother's dead body, his autopsy photos, his blackened face and slit throat, to my email and my Facebook page. ... I did not ever think we would be victimized."

Alexander's relatives and friends were all seen wearing blue in solidarity.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez said that Alexander's relatives hope that Arias is sentenced to serve life without the possibility of parole "not because they want to be vindictive, but [because] as you have also seen, what happened in that bathroom was a butchering."

All but one holdout on the second jury wanted to give Arias the death penalty, jurors said. However,because a unanimous decision was not reached, Stephens was tasked with determining her prison sentence, and the death penalty was taken off the table.

Arias took the stand for a marathon 18 days in the first trial, which turned into a national spectacle with live coverage. Judge Sherry Stephens ruled that cameras were not allowed in court during the second trial, covering the sentencing phase, except for the reading of the verdict.

Original Post Found Here

gma.yahoo.com/jodi-arias-victims-relatives-tearfully-ask-judge-impose-160553888--abc-news-topstories.html

Alabama death row inmate to be freed after nearly 30 years

An Alabama inmate who spent nearly 30 years on death row will go free Friday after prosecutors told a judge there is not enough evidence to link him to the 1985 murders he was convicted of committing.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Laura Petro on Thursday dismissed the case against Anthony Ray Hinton. The district attorney's office in a Wednesday court filing said that forensic experts couldn't determine if six crime scene bullets - which were the crux of the evidence against Hinton - came from a gun investigators took from his home.
Hinton, now 58, was convicted of two 1985 murders that occurred during separate robberies of fast-food restaurants in Birmingham. Prosecutors linked Hinton to the killings through a .38-caliber revolver found at his house.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year sent Hinton's case back for a potential new trial, which prompted a re-examination of the evidence.
"We've been hoping for this. We've believed that this should have happened," said Bryan Stevenson, Hinton's attorney and director of the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. The Jefferson County District attorney's office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Stevenson has been arguing for 16 years that Hinton was innocent.
Hinton wept Wednesday night after learning the news that he would finally go free, Stevenson said.
Hinton is expected to be released from the Jefferson County Jail on Friday morning after spending more than half his life in prison.
"Every day, every month, every year that the state took from him, they took something that they don't have the power to give back. While this moment is quite joyous and is quite wonderful, this case is quite tragic," Stevenson said.
Six bullets were what prosecutors used in the 1980s to connect Hinton to the slayings. A modern analysis on the bullets is what led prosecutors to drop the case against him.
The Supreme Court last year ruled that Hinton had "constitutionally deficient" representation at his initial trial. Hinton's defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to try to rebut the prosecution testimony about the bullets. The lawyer hired the only person willing to take the job at that price, even though he had concerns about the expert's credentials. At the time, jurors chuckled as the defense expert struggled to answer questions on cross-examination.
"He was a poor person who was convicted because he didn't have the money to prove his innocence at trial. He was unable to get the legal help he needed for years. He was convicted based on bad science," Stevenson said.
John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason were killed during robberies at Mrs. Winner's and Captain D's restaurants in Birmingham in 1985. Investigators focused on Hinton after a person who was shot, but survived, at a third robbery at a Quincy's restaurant identified Hinton as the person who shot him. However, Stevenson said Hinton had an alibi showing that he was at work when the Quincy's robbery was committed.
"The connection has always been the bullets," Chief Deputy District Attorney John R. Bowers, Jr. said Thursday.
At his initial trial, state experts testified that the four bullets fired during the slayings, and another two from the Quincy's robbery, had all been fired from a revolver found at Hinton's home.
However, in 2015, three different experts from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences couldn't determine if any of those bullets were fired through the revolver taken from Hinton's home, or even if they had been fired from the same gun.
Bowers said the forensics experts explained that standards have gotten more "conservative."
"Some things back then that experts would be willing to attest to, they would not be willing to attest to now. They would need more now," Bowers said.
Asked if Hinton was wrongly convicted, Bowers said he couldn't say because his "experts haven't ruled him in. They haven't ruled him out."
"I don't have the evidence necessary to proceed with prosecution. I don't have the evidence to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt anymore," Bowers said.

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http://www.aol.com/article/2015/04/02/alabama-death-row-inmate-to-be-freed-after-nearly-30-years/21160898/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D638034