TV stations ask judge to reconsider ban on Arias video
PHOENIX — An attorney representing five local Phoenix television stations asked a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to reconsider her ban on video coverage of the upcoming Jodi Arias retrial.
In a hearing Monday morning, First Amendment attorney David Bodney pleaded with Judge Sherry Stephens to allow the local news stations to air video clips of the trial on the evening news. Stephens has ruled that she will allow the upcoming sentencing retrial to be videotaped, but the tapes cannot be shown until after the trial is over.
Stephens took the matter under advisement and said she would rule by the end of the week.
Arias, 34, was convicted of murder in May 2013 after a salacious and tumultuous trial that was live-streamed over TV and the Internet. Trial fanatics around the world watched as prosecutor Juan Martinez displayed the horrendous crime-scene photographs of the victim, Arias' former lover Travis Alexander, 30. Alexander was found dead in the shower of his Mesa home in 2008, shot in the head, his throat slit, with nearly 30 stab wounds.
Arias took the witness stand for 19 days to describe the steamy and explosive relationship with Alexander that ended in his murder. Viewers took sides and flooded social-media sites with passionate messages about the case. Martinez became a media darling. Defense attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott were painted as villains. Trial witnesses and attorneys received death threats.
But even though the jury found Arias guilty of first-degree murder, it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she should be sentenced to life or death. Stephens declared a mistrial.
The guilty verdict stands, as does the first jury's finding of an aggravating factor that qualifies Arias for death. The only decision for the new jury will be whether to sentence her to life or death, and that retrial is scheduled to start impaneling a new jury on Sept. 29.
Stephens ruled that the retrial could be photographed by a newspaper still photographer, and that those photographs could be published. And she allowed for video, but imposed the video blackout until the trial ends.
Most of the pretrial hearings in the past year have been closed to the media and public.
Monday's hearing also began behind closed doors. When the media was allowed in, Stephens and Arias discussed Arias' decision to no longer serve as her own attorney. She had invoked her right to defend herself in an attempt to remove Nurmi from the case.
When it was Bodney's turn to make his case for cameras, he protested the "bolted doors of the courtroom."
"The Constitution of the United States as interpreted repeatedly by the U.S. Supreme Court ... recognizes that the press and the public have a constitutional right to attend criminal proceedings."
Bodney did not ask the judge to allow live streaming of the retrial. Instead he asked that the TV news be allowed to hold the video until 30 minutes after the day's proceedings end and then air edited clips for the evening newscasts.
Nurmi objected to daily TV news coverage on behalf of Arias, saying that the media had profiteered during the first trial, denying justice to Arias. And he said it would make it difficult to get witnesses to testify for Arias out of fear of harassment from trial-watchers.
"We have assured mitigation witnesses this trial will not be broadcast," he said.
Martinez said he had no objection to camera coverage.
"The state sees the defendant's objection as nothing more than an attempt to control what goes out on the airwaves," Martinez said.
Stephens said she would make a ruling by the end of the week.
She set a hearing for Tuesday to discuss jury instructions, and another for Sept. 22 to discuss Arias' motion to compel the state to turn over evidence.