The lawyer for a 32-year-old accused of killing her ex-boyfriend admitted to a jury Friday that his client isn't that easy to like.
But the jury doesn't have to like Jodi Arias to find she killed Travis Alexander in self-defense, her attorney Kirk Nurmi said, according to an Associated Press report.
“It’s not about whether or not you like Jodi Arias. Nine days out of 10, I don’t like Jodi Arias. ... But that doesn’t matter,” Nurmi said, asking the jury to be impartial even if they're not huge fans of Arias personally.
Nurmi's honesty came after prosecutor Juan Martinez displayed gruesome crime scene photos and portrayed Arias as a manipulative liar during brutal closing arguments.
Arias could get the death penalty for allegedly plotting to kill Alexander in 2008. She admits killing him in his Arizona home but says she was fending off a physical attack and that Alexander had a history of being abusive.
Not only is it difficult to believe Arias killed Alexander in self-defense, it's also really tough to have any sympathy for her. Alexander, a Mormon motivational speaker, was stabbed nearly 30 times. He was shot in the head. Arias also nearly cut his head off. Arias initially told investigators she knew nothing of the murder before blaming it on masked intruders and finally settling on self-defense.
To prove their self-defense claim, Arias' lawyers have attacked Alexander's character. They've portrayed him as a controlling womanizer who coerced Arias into having kinky sex and refused to ever make a commitment to her.
However, the jury has seemed skeptical of Arias' claims that Alexander had all the power in the relationship. Arizona is one of the few states that allow jurors to question witnesses directly, and their questions betrayed their skepticism.
"If you didn't want to be tied to a tree then why did you look for a tree in the forest for him to do that?" one juror asked.
Another asked this telling question: "Do you feel the guys in your life cheated on you because you were controlling?"
Given the signs that at least some of the jurors don't like Arias, her lawyer was probably pretty smart to concede that she's not likable. He also made some good points to rebut the theory that she planned her attack.
In doing so, Numi might at least spare Arias the death penalty and save the life of a woman he and many Americans have grown to loathe.
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