Crime & Trial Discussion Forums

http://www.courtchatter.com/2015/02/jodi-arias-so-was-there-any-porn.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CourtChatter+%28Court+Chatter%29

Sums it up pretty well.

I think it is interesting that Court Chatter reposted the Just Da Truth blog about there being no porn on Alexander's computer that Lunarscope posted a few pages back and we all discussed. That means that we aren't the only ones who read and appreciate Brad's blogs.

I don't believe Jodi Arias herself would ever admit to being mentally ill to this jury. When the jurors in the murder trial asked her if she ever got help for her mental problems, she denied that she had any mental problems. In her secret testimony to this jury, she portrayed herself as a remorseful victim who had been abused by violent parents and cheating abusive boyfriends and said that she couldn't believe she committed such a heinous crime because she wasn't like that at all. She never mentioned that she had any mood swings or emotional problems of any kind. I don't believe she willingly went along with the strategy to use "mentally ill" as a mitigator and to make no mention of the self defense story the first jury heard in this mitigation retrial.

In the Jodi Arias Updates twitter account, she still maintains that Travis Alexander tried to kill her June 4, 2008 and she only killed him to save her own life. There is no mention at all of her being mentally ill or having Borderline Personality Disorder on that site. She calls DeMarte "Tot Doc" and implies that everything DeMarte says should be dismissed because she is too young and inexperienced to know what she is talking about.

(02-14-2015, 03:07 PM)Observer Wrote: [ -> ]I can't trust a word Arias has written in her journal because to me they are nothing but the lies and fabrications of a narcissistic psychopath. Many times in her journals she said Travis wanted to marry her or would propose but she couldn't marry him. That was a lie. She told the Hughes right after she met Travis that she had a vision that she was going to marry him and even described her wedding dress. From the time she met him, every waking moment she was plotting and planning to get him to marry her.

After being arrested for murdering Travis Alexander, Jodi Arias told his family in the letter from jail she and Travis loved each other and were discussing marriage and the kids they were going to have and the only problem in their relationship was Deanna Reid, his jealous ex girlfriend. We know that was a lie. I think her earlier journal entries were no more true than the entries she made after slaughtering Travis and the email she wrote to Travis after killing him.

I have seen no evidence to suggest that Arias knew about Travis Alexander before that PPL meeting where all of his friends witnessed them meeting. She could tell from meeting him he was good looking, a "rising star" in PPL and was charismatic and had lots of friends and connections. She also learned quickly that he was LDS and was marriage material. That would have been enough for her to see him as the Prince who would sweep her off her feet and pamper her and give her the life she wanted to become accustomed to.

I too believe that the relationship, if you call it that, lasted a couple of months at the most and there was little sex. What they were discussing on the sex tape were sexual fantasies and reminiscing about one or two sexual trysts. Nurmi is leading the jury to believe their romantic/sexual relationship lasted from the time they met until he died and that they were having sex at the time Alexander was emailing those women and Arias was trying to log him off. She was in Yreka at the time so they couldn't be having sex.

Jurors are individuals so I have no idea what they are believing and thinking but I have faith that in the deliberations, the jurors with logic, common sense and reason will convince jurors who may have bought into the dirty tactics of Nurmi and the fake remorse of Arias to vote for a death sentence because I believe good triumphs over evil.

Observer, I have said from the beginning that I don't believe anything she says. And that includes her writings. Something may actually be factual, but it would be so insignificant that I can't take anything she says or writes seriously. She is a manipulator, a liar, and a murderer.

Forgot we had gone over this time and again, but I thought it was worth reading again anyway.

I said a long time ago that if Arias used mental illness for an excuse (not a mitigating factor IMO), just an excuse, that she would only do so if she can come up with a story that she was miraculously cured after some time in prison.

If Nurmi went against what she wanted and used the mental illness issue as he did, then Arias would later file a motion for ineffective counsel for going against her wishes.
I think she is behind this defense tactic and went along with it willingly.

If it would get her out of the DP, she would use it. Pure and simple in my mind.

The self defense reason was disproved beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Her being a victim of domestic violence was disproved as well.

This is the only excuse she had left. Her mental illness contributed to her actions, all of them, in her relationship with Travis. She could not help herself. It doesn't matter that she claims he was a pedophile, a porn lover and an abuser. It doesn't matter that her parents abused drugs and beat her. Her mental illness governed her actions - even the slaughter of Travis.

In her secret testimony, she said she was remorseful and cannot believe that she would have done such a dastardly deed. She implied her actions was out of her control.

I can see her saying in her allocution that she never mentioned her mood swings or emotional issues in earlier testimony and/or interviews because of the stigma that is attached.
I can see her taking on the role of victim once again only this time it would be a victim of someone suffering with a mental illness and being railroaded by the justice system.

Of course all of this is lie after lie after lie. Her methodical way of coming up with excuse after excuse proves this. Her conviction proves this.

But she will not be able to help herself in her allocution because she will want to come across as the special person she thinks she is - with a high IQ, eloquence and a person that has much to give the world.
It will be her undoing.

Her total lack of remorse as shown in her trying to destroy Travis reputation, even in death, in treatment of Travis' family, and her own family is very evident.
That no one spoke up for her in open court to try and save her life is huge.

(02-14-2015, 04:24 PM)NERN Wrote: [ -> ]Forgot we had gone over this time and again, but I thought it was worth reading again anyway.

I said a long time ago that if Arias used mental illness for an excuse (not a mitigating factor IMO), just an excuse, that she would only do so if she can come up with a story that she was miraculously cured after some time in prison.

If Nurmi went against what she wanted and used the mental illness issue as he did, then Arias would later file a motion for ineffective counsel for going against her wishes.
I think she is behind this defense tactic and went along with it willingly.

If it would get her out of the DP, she would use it. Pure and simple in my mind.

The self defense reason was disproved beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Her being a victim of domestic violence was disproved as well.

This is the only excuse she had left. Her mental illness contributed to her actions, all of them, in her relationship with Travis. She could not help herself. It doesn't matter that she claims he was a pedophile, a porn lover and an abuser. It doesn't matter that her parents abused drugs and beat her. Her mental illness governed her actions - even the slaughter of Travis.

In her secret testimony, she said she was remorseful and cannot believe that she would have done such a dastardly deed. She implied her actions was out of her control.

I can see her saying in her allocution that she never mentioned her mood swings or emotional issues in earlier testimony and/or interviews because of the stigma that is attached.
I can see her taking on the role of victim once again only this time it would be a victim of someone suffering with a mental illness and being railroaded by the justice system.

Of course all of this is lie after lie after lie. Her methodical way of coming up with excuse after excuse proves this. Her conviction proves this.

But she will not be able to help herself in her allocution because she will want to come across as the special person she thinks she is - with a high IQ, eloquence and a person that has much to give the world.
It will be her undoing.

Her total lack of remorse as shown in her trying to destroy Travis reputation, even in death, in treatment of Travis' family, and her own family is very evident.
That no one spoke up for her in open court to try and save her life is huge.

Good posting, Nern. Particularly the last sentence. Even Scott Peterson had that gold teacher say that he played golf well. Nobody said anything good about Arias except the so-called expert witnesses and I hope the jury doesn't listen to them. I wonder if Arias will try to sell Tshirts in her allocution.

Derek Bond, the P-I Jodi Arias hired on her own to work on the appeal, said there would be an appeal whether she gets death or life and that Jodi Arias plans to use ineffective counsel in her appeal because she tried to fire Kirk Nurmi many times and he tried to quit and the judge refused to allow it.

An appellate attorney always uses ineffective counsel as an appellate issue but it won't work in this case because the only way a defendant can prove ineffective counsel is if the attorney did nothing to defend the client or didn’t call witnesses or admit evidence that would have changed the verdict. In the murder trial, Nurmi filed many motions for mistrial to set up appellate issues and called defense witnesses and cross examined state witnesses.

Despite the fact that Arias refused to see Nurmi and didn't speak to him after the mistrial, tried to fire him and took over as her own attorney for two weeks, Kirk Nurmi continued to file motions and set up appellate issues by filing motion after motion for mistrial, charging prosecutorial misconduct, that Martinez withheld evidence, that Flores deleted porn from the computer, that witnesses were harassed by the prosecutor and social media and refused to testify. He has also aggressively and vigorously cross examined state witnesses and called two experts and a forensic computer expert to testify in the mitigation retrial. And he is presenting not only a mitigation case but a surrebutal case. That is not ineffective counsel.

I think Arias' allocution will be very similar to the last one where she gave a power presentation on why she should not be put to death. She cut her hair right before the retrial so she could donate it to the Locks of Love and auctioned off her glasses and artwork and gave the proceeds to St. Jude's and the Food Bank for the sole purpose of bragging about it at allocution. She also plans on showing off one of her drawings. Because she already testified in secret to her remorse, I doubt if that will be mentioned in allocution. She will talk only about the positives and what she can offer society if she is allowed to live.

The reason I think Arias would never admit to being mentally ill is because that would mean admitting there was something wrong with her. She has always maintained she is normal and always nice, sweet, polite, kind and caring and that she would never even harm a spider. It is her parents and Alexander who were mean and violent to her.

The only diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder came from the state's psychologist. All of the defense mental health experts, LaViolette, Samuels, Fonesca and Geffner all stated Arias was always passive, suffered in silence, never raised her voice and only suffered from PTSD. Geffner said when he tested her in 2914 he found no personality disorders. He said her friends thought she was BiPolar but she did not test as BiPolar. Although her friends urged her to seek help for her mood swings, she refused.

Here’s some excepts from an article in Psychology Today differentiating between BiPolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Bipolar disorder causes dramatic mood swings, from overly "high" and/or irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, often with periods of normal mood in between. Severe changes in energy and behavior go along with these changes in mood. The periods of highs and lows are called episodes of mania and depression.

A cycle is the period of time it takes for a person to go through one episode of mania and one of depression. The frequency and duration of these cycles vary from person to person, from once every five years to once every three months. People with a subtype of bipolar (rapid--cycling bipolar) may cycle more quickly, but much less quickly than people with BPD (shifts can even last minutes/seconds).

According to Dr. Friedel, director of the BPD program at Virginia Commonwealth University, there are two main differences between BPD and bipolar disorder:

1. People with BPD cycle much more quickly, often several times a day.

2. The moods in people with BPD are more dependent, either positively or negatively, on what's going on in their life at the moment. Anything that might smack of abandonment (however farfetched) is a major trigger.

3. In people with BPD, the mood swings are more distinct. Marsha M. Linehan, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, says that while people with bipolar disorder swing between all-encompassing periods of mania and major depression, the mood swings typical in BPD are more specific. She says, "You have fear going up and down, sadness going up and down, anger up and down, disgust up and down, and love up and down."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stop-walking-eggshells/201003/three-ways-differentiate-bipolar-and-borderline-disorders

I agree that proof of ineffective counsel of Arias by Nurmi will not fly in an appellate court. Nurmi has definitely gone over the top in his defense of Arias.
But that is not to say that Arias will not once again pursue the issue if she thinks it will work for her.
She has tried numerous times to get rid of Nurmi over the course of this case and I can see her using ineffective counsel as another bite at the apple during an appeal.

Observer, I think we are essentially saying the same thing with regard to the allocution of Arias.
It will be all about HER and her gifts to mankind in the past and in the future if she is allowed to live.
It will be her last performance and she will make it a good one.

Knowing that eventually everyone will see her allocution, not just the court and jury, she will in no way come across as the mentally ill person that she agreed to play in her defense during this trial.
She will show confidence and determination but in a manner that she hopes will manipulate the jury to not give her the DP.

She can turn on a dime.

What she needs to do when she gets up there to speak is to emphatically say that she is sorry for what she did, not for herself, but for Travis and his family and all the other people that she horribly hurt by committing this crime. She must beg for mercy from the jury. The only trouble with this is that all of us will know that she is once again lying just to save her life.

In my world, DeMarte proved beyond a shadow of doubt that Arias has BPD. I know people who are Bipolar and I do not believe that she is. I base my opinion on the evidence presented and personal experience but then again, I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist.

The opening statements were filmed. We got to see both the prosecution and the defense.
Does anyone know if the closing arguments will be on film also, or not?

For Jodi Arias, it is all about the con.

Like Brad’s girlfriend who tried to convince him he was imagining her being in his house, he was crazy, he was dangerous, Jodi Arias will try to convince the jury in her allocution that those bad things they heard about her could not possibly be true.

She will use her charm and little girl voice on the jurors like she did Flores when she tried to con him with her protests:

“I wasn’t there.”

“I would never hurt Travis. I loved him.”

“I had other boyfriends and they are all alive.”

“If I killed Travis, I would wear gloves.”

“If I killed Travis, I would shoot him because it would be more mercenary.”

She used her soft little girl voice, blonde hair, pouty lips, breast implants and sex to con men into having relationships with her and taking her back no matter how possessive and jealous she became.

She tried to con the public and media by smiling in her mugshot. Now would she smile if she was a guilty cold blooded murderer?

She tried to con the public and media in several interviews from Yreka and Estrella jails from her arrest to post conviction.

In all the interviews she looked like a Hollywood starlet right out of hair and makeup and was smiling and protesting her innocence. She tried to convince the media and public that a guilty murderer wouldn’t look so pretty, happy, be smiling and confident she would never be convicted.

She tried to con both juries by lowering her chair so she looks too small to murder a 200 lb man and wearing glasses so she looks too intelligent to murder someone in cold blood.

In her allocation, she will try to con the jury into thinking she can’t be executed because she looks so young, pretty and smart and talented. She will try to con them into believing a cold blooded murderer would not donate their hair to charity, donate the proceeds of their eye glasses and artwork to St. Jude’s Hospital for dying children and the Foodbank which feeds the hungry and downtrodden.

It has to be some mistake. She is not a person who lies, manipulates and commits murder. She is a sweet innocent talented philanthropist. They must have heard the state wrong.

For me, Arias has never looked like a Hollywood starlet.

Although she had the dyed, long blonde hair that is pictured in many starlet's photographs, it was not outstanding.
She had breast implants, but many women do.

I will give her that she is a good looking woman (or was as jail has hardened her looks dramatically), she is not any more noteworthy in her looks than millions of others.

Now.....that is not to say that she doesn't think this way about herself.
When she said she was far more comfortable behind the camera rather than in front of it, she was once again lying. Every picture of her is posed for the camera and as I have said before, I have yet to see any of her "professional work' with a camera. That is unless you want to add selfies.
With her perfect make-up, tilt of the head and wide smile when she was before a camera, I am sure she thinks she was god's gift to MANkind.
She had/has no inhibitions when it comes to using her sexuality to impress and manipulate others and mostly the male gender.
THAT is her only asset, which she willingly used every chance she got to hold onto a man.

I also think that there is a big difference between being an actor and a pathological liar. An actor assumes a role and if successful, that is talent. A liar believes themselves and the role they assume is not talent but rather a ploy to manipulate.

She is a true con artist and that is where her talent arises.
Given all that has been presented in court about Arias, her con is revealed and I think that the jury, when they hear her allocution, will recognize this.
When she gets up there they will see and hear that she will appear meek, mild, sweet and eloquent but remember that she will do anything to save her life. This con will not work.