Day 5 - "A Juror's Perspective." Written by: Paul A, Sanders, Jr. The 13th Juror MD @ The13thJurorMD (Twitter)

The Jodi Arias Retrial (Sentencing) - Day 5 - "A Juror's Perspective."

Juries like to see, feel, hear and touch evidence. Juries like forensic evidence and it is hard to find a trial where it cannot be used. Juries like to see the victim so that they may understand that person better and who they were. Juries like to to the weapon so they understand and can feel the tragedy of the event. Juries want to know not only what is in front of them but also what is in people's hearts.

The Jury rarely realizes how much of their own heart will be sacrificed and searched in the process. They will search for the truth on the stage in front of them and they will delve deep inside to find the truth within their soul.

The death of Dale Harrell was a similar tragedy to that of Travis Alexander in that neither victim knew that death was coming from someone they loved and cared deeply for. The parallels between the trials are close except that our Jury did not get to see enough of Dale Harrell when he was alive. We wanted to know more of him. We wanted him to stand in the deliberation room. Through no fault of anyone, the evidence of his life was limited. 

The final day of deliberations in the second phase of the DeVault Trial, we had requested a final look at evidence in trying to determine that she caused the death of Dale Harrell for pecuniary (financial) reasons. This was one of the two qualifiers for the death penalty. We could not reach on this because we did not have tangible evidence in how she spent the money. In the process of searching for that, we found the birth certificate of Dale Harrell. In that, we learned he had a twin. We assumed the twin to an identical twin and later learned that his fraternal twin was named Mindi. She represents the epitome of the strength of a survivor.

The moment we learned that Dale had a twin, he stood in our deliberation room. It was all we had and we were committed to showing his surviving twin justice. 

We gave the best justice we could given what was laid in front of us.

The Arias trial has a factor that will impact the Jury and it will impact their hearts. We listened to the tape recordings of Travis Alexander and Arias today. i don't think the Jury will be impacted because of the sex on the recording. It is immaterial to the event being debated I looked at the Jury and most of them had their heads down as they listened.

The tapes had a great impact on me and I'm sure they did on the Jury. What they did is make Travis Alexander seem alive. We saw him as a human being. He was not perfect, like all of us, but he was a good man. We heard his sense of humor. We heard him speak of trips he was going to take to Washington D.C., Cancun and Oregon. We heard of his hopes and dreams with the company he was so excited about. We heard him joke about his friends and the nuances that attracted him to them. We heard Travis Alexander as he lived in a private setting.

I had never heard any of these tapes in their entirety and they impacted me. I am not afraid to say that the tears flowed when Travis said "Goodnight" to Arias on the phone, his voice slightly slurred as he was ready for sleep.. The sadness of this tragedy was almost overwhelming. I know the Jury will take this home with them.

The opposing side is that they made Arias alive as well. She sounded full of life, She was in love. She laughed.

Then, she killed.

The question will bother the Jury. It will lead to hours of discussion. The Jury will question why. They will search their hearts. They will feel it in their gut and it will not make sense to a reasonable human being. It will not make sense to the Jury.

They cannot feel, touch or see why she did it. There was very little to no evidence showing her stalking behavior prior to the crime. They do not know that Travis Alexander's tires were slashed twice. They do not know about the doggie door although they may remember something about her watching him being intimate with other girls.

I hope they understand that this is not a case where the attacker "snapped". She did not snap. She premeditated his death to the smallest detail. I hope that Juan Martinez laid the path clearly in their minds.

As a Juror, I cannot help wondering if it was enough.

The prosecution rested today.

The Jury presented questions to the court on ballets to the seated witness, Detective Flores, the lead investigator.. One question asked where her pants were. Another asked if the investigators knew where she cleaned herself up. Still another question queried about the blood in the rental car.

There were four other questions but the above questions concerned me because it feels like they don't have a picture in their minds. The answers were all negative. 

Juries like a picture painted.

This phase is not about a shadow of a doubt. It is about a preponderance of evidence leaning toward aggravation or leaning toward mitigation. 

The defense begins mitigation on Thursday. I expect the appearance of Psychologists and look forward to the prosecution witness, Dr. DeMarte. I nicknamed her the "Pyscho-Killer" in my book, Brain Damage: A Juror's Tale (available on Amazon.com). Dr. DeMarte will undoubtedly destroy the defense Psychologist witness(s). She is bright, clear, to the point and sees Arias as she really is, a malingering and manipulative defendant.

I just hope Juan Martinez gave the jury enough to feel, see and touch. I hope he gave them the preponderance of evidence that shows she deserves the ultimate penalty. 

The questions the Jury asked are of concern. We have to trust it was enough...

Justice for Dale.

Justice for Travis

Paul A, Sanders, Jr.
The 13th Juror MD @ The13thJurorMD (Twitter)