Alleged murderer Jodi Arias broke down and cried on the witness stand Thursday under relentless cross examination by prosecutor Juan Martinez in Maricopa County, Arizona and on national television in front of cameras from HLN television. The question is did the tears help or hurt her with the jurors who will someday decide her fate?
Martinez followed a standard rule from the prosecutor's handbook in going after Arias hard as he grilled her concerning the facts on the day she allegedly murdered him with premeditation, according to the State of Arizona. He asked her if she cried when she shot him, if she cried when she stabbed him 27 times and if she cried when she slit his throat. Arias responded that she didn't remember, according to the Christian Post.
Her self-defense version is that he became enraged with her when she dropped his camera, cursed her and slammed her to the floor of his bathroom. She then scrambled away in fear of immiment bodily injury or death at the hands of boyfriend Travis Alexander. As she was fleeing she remembered he kept a handgun in his closet. She grabbed the gun so she could protect herself.
There her memory fails her and she doesn't remember shooting him twice in the face, stabbing him 27 times or slitting his throat. It's what prosecutors usually refer to as a "selective memory." The only person still living who knows what she remembers and what happened that day is Jodi Arias.
Her crying Thursday was in stark contrast to her calm and confident demeanor ever since this trial began on Jan. 2. Up until now, she has remaind poised as Martinez has aggressively attacked her for days concerning inconsistent statemens she's given to police, television interviewers and others. At one point she even responded to Martinez that "she did have trouble remembering when men like Travis and the prosecutor yelled at her."
The tears began Thursday when Martinez showed her a photograph of Travis Alexander laying dead on the bathroom floor. They grew into a torrent throughout the long day as Martinez hammered at her concerning the events of the last day of Alexander's lfe.
During breaks HLN legal experts debated on what her tears signified. Was she crying because she was guilty or because she was upset her ex-boyfriend was dead? Was she crying for herself or her boyfriend? While the cameras were not allowed to show the jurors, commentators described the jurors as looking grim-faced when they left the jury box during breaks. The jurors will have several choices including guilty of capital murder and death for Arias. Or they could decide on a lesser offense and assess a certain number of years in prison. Or they could find her not guilty by reason of self-defense. She has set in jail approximately three years so it's even possible she could be released almost immediately if she is sentenced to a low number of years. Once Arias leaves the stand, the defense will probably call one or more experts to testify that she fits the profile of someone who is a victim of spouse abuse. A defense expert may also be called to explain her loss of memory. At some point the jurors will decide the fate of Jodi Arias. Only then will we know if the tears hurt or help her. Anyone interesested in receiving free updates of future National Places and Faces articles should click on the subscribe link above this article.
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