After seeing part of the long trial on TV while skimming through channels, I came across an article on CBS News discussing the Jodi Arias trial. This women was arrested for murdering her on-again, off again lover, Travis Alexander, in an “especially cruel” manner. She was recently convicted of first degree murder even though she had argued it was in self defense. Arias stabbed Alexander 29 times, slit his neck from ear to ear and shot him in the face. If this was self defense, at what point did it require such carnage to be done to a person to protect themselves? The jury has begun to deliberate if Arias should receive the death penalty and the prosecutor, Martinez, has made it clear that she killed him in rage. “She made sure she killed him by stabbing him over and over and over again and then finishing him off by slicing his throat,” Martinez said. “It is also sure that during this attack Mr. Alexander suffered. Mr. Alexander suffered pain every time the knife went into his body, every time the knife blade struck the back of his head, and when the blade went down to his throat, it was certainly also extremely painful.” The article goes on to describe how Mr. Alexander had defensive wounds on his hands as he tried to protect himself. So the question is do you believe that Ms. Arias killed him in self defense when he was the one trying to defend himself. Would the death penalty serve her the same pain that Mr. Alexander felt as “he stood at the sink in his master bathroom and looked into the mirror with Arias behind him.”? No one will ever know the full truth of what happened, however speculations can best derive the answer to that question…but..is that justice?
St. Joseph's College Crime & Media Blog 