Life or death for convicted killer Jodi Arias? Jury deliberates

BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
PHOENIX Wed Feb 25, 2015 7:11pm EST

(Reuters) - The jury in the case of convicted killer Jodi Arias began deliberations on Wednesday to determine whether she will be executed for murdering her ex-boyfriend in 2008, court officials said.

The jury of eight women and four men began weighing the former waitress's fate after final instructions from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens at the end of a five-month sentencing phase retrial in Phoenix.

Arias, 34, was convicted in 2013 of killing Travis Alexander, 30, in his Phoenix-area home in the original trial, which was broadcast live. The case drew a large audience with its lurid details, graphic testimony and blood-splattered crime scene photos.

But the jury that found Arias guilty was unable to decide whether the woman from Salinas, California, should receive the death penalty. A new panel for the sentencing phase retrial was seated in October.

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