
© Arizona Department of CorrectionsJodi Arias
Jodi Arias surprised the court at her sentencing hearing Monday when she admitted for the first time that she "remembered the night I put the knife in Travis' throat."
During her first trial, she insisted that she was in a fog and didn't remember anything after she shot Travis Alexander, who she claimed was charging at her in a rage. She slit his throat, she said Monday, because he was still attacking her.
But it was no surprise that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens sentenced Arias to natural life in prison, meaning she will have no possibility of release.
The murder was savage, and Stephens said she felt Arias had planned it out. It was cruel, the judge said, and a jury had found it so. Furthermore, she said, it had caused financial and emotional hardship for Alexander's family.So ended 2 1/2 years of speculation, anger, titillation, harassment, spectacle and social-media hysteria since the first of Arias' trials began in January 2013.
The prosecution wanted death.
But two consecutive juries were unable to reach a unanimous death verdict; in the second trial, it came down to a single vote for life.
Comment: Imagine if this started happening all over the place!