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The JAA Appeals Movie

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 [embedit snippet=”justice-denied-video”]

 Thanks to Journee & Pandora for the planning & production of this movie on behalf of Team Jodi.

On May 8, 2013, Jodi Arias was convicted of first degree murder in the 2008 death of her boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The Maricopa County, AZ jury that convicted her was unable to agree on whether she should be sentenced to life or death. In most states, the court ruling would have defaulted to the lesser sentence of life in prison, but Arizona allows the prosecution to make another run at the death penalty. The retrial of the penalty phase is currently set for Sept. 8, 2014. Meanwhile, Arias has been kept in solitary confinement at Estrella jail in Phoenix since the day she was convicted.

Jodi Arias stood before the jury and took responsibility for the death of the man she loved, saying she’d undo it all if she could, but that she acted in self defense. In the United States, it is not a crime to kill in self defense. The law recognizes that life fights for itself, survival its only imperative.

But, as you may know, neither the laws supporting self defense nor evidence of abuse/battery serve to advocate for women in actual trials. When intimate partner violence culminates in a woman killing her abuser, 75-80% of those women are either convicted or convinced to plead guilty, and sentenced severely. Often more severely than abusers are sentenced in the deaths of their intimate partners.

Many legal pundits across the country have weighed in to say that this was clearly a domestic violence case for which Arias was grossly over-charged. We agree. We believe the crime scene itself testifies a violent struggle between two people. We believe the testimony of domestic violence expert Alyce LaViolette, who read hundreds of pages of written communication between Jodi and Travis and concluded that Travis was abusive, volatile and escalating.

We believe Jodi was still in denial that Travis would really hurt her, or she would not have gone there that day. The violence was still a fairly new element in their relationship. There had only been a few incidences of physical abuse in the preceding months. In her mind the violence didn’t come from the Travis she loved and she did not report those incidents. But the most recent incident had involved a Travis so enraged that he choked her until she lost consciousness. So we believe Jodi had good reason to be very afraid, to take an angry Travis at his word when he said he was going to kill her that day. We believe that when Travis said those words, Jodi’s LIFE took over and fought for ITSELF.

We believe Jodi is not guilty of first degree murder.

But we’re not writing to convince you of that. The law says only twelve people get the deciding votes on whether someone is guilty or innocent of the charges against them, at the end of the *fair*trial* also guaranteed by law.

Jodi Arias did not get a fair trial. If the five month trial in Maricopa County Superior Court is any example of how justice is done in this country, we’re all in trouble.

Judge Sherry Stephens allowed Travis Alexander’s family to ‘testify’ from the gallery, sitting in the front row, just a few feet away from the jury, sobbing and making faces. One sister in particular was caught on camera several times a week, rolling her eyes for the benefit of the camera that was positioned in the jury box. If the camera saw it, the jury saw it. That’s not supposed to happen. That’s a sixth amendment violation in that it was ‘testimony’ delivered directly to the jury, with no opportunity for cross examination by the defense.

Then we have the prosecutor, Juan Martinez, who stomped and shouted and bullied witnesses, even his own witnesses when they dared to go ‘off message.’ This same prosecutor also gave every appearance of suborning perjury, first from the lead detective on the case who contradicted his own sworn testimony from pre-trial hearings, then from the medical examiner who contradicted his own autopsy report – all in support of the prosecutor’s new theory of the crime, which he announced just four days before the trial began.

Martinez got away with using vague references and sly innuendo which should have been completely lost on the jury, because they alluded to events about which there had been absolutely no testimony, malicious gossip promoted by one particular network and spread like gospel over the internet. Did Mr. Martinez trust that the un-sequestered jurors would disobey the judge’s admonitions to avoid any and all media discussion of the trial? It’s clear that at least one of them disobeyed, because there were juror questions (in Arizona jurors are permitted to submit anonymous questions to witnesses) taken directly from televised programs the night before.

If you are wondering how the judge allowed all this to happen, you’re not alone.

The news media has always sought to capitalize on ‘sensational’ trials. Provocative headlines sell advertising, after all. And we’ve all watched the steady decline of journalistic integrity as it was sacrificed to the priority of making money. Even so, it was grotesque and very disheartening to watch the apparent glee of broadcasters as they discussed the Arias trial. This was a tragedy, after all. A man lost his life and woman was on trial for hers and these people were making extreme ‘reality TV’. They could say anything they wanted, and did. They were all too happy to offer 15 minutes of fame to anyone who cared to step up to the mike and say something bad about Jodi. It didn’t have to be true, it just had to be bad enough to feed the beast, to arouse the bloodlust of their viewers and bring them back for more.

The viewers, in turn, went to the internet. If the so-called ‘news’ media turned the trial of Jodi Arias into bloodsport, the internet’s social media turned it into an unprecedented corruption of our judicial system.

Internet discussion groups have long provided an environment where people felt a bit too free to be their worst selves, to behave online in ways they’d never behave in real life, to speak to faceless strangers online in ways they’d never speak to a stranger on the street. During the Arias trial, the impassioned seekers of “Justice for Travis” took it to a whole new level, in some cases even taking their bad behavior out into the real world.

It started with harassment and threats to Jodi’s friends and family. As the defense case progressed, the ‘seekers’ moved on to harassing and threatening defense witnesses. Harassing and threatening witnesses is a felony. “Freedom of speech” they called it when over a thousand people flocked to Amazon.com to write scathing reviews of a book they’d never read, just because it was co-authored by Alyce LaViolette. They lobbied every business and organization she was affiliated with to drop her and distance themselves from her. They called her office and left death threats on her voicemail. She ended up in the emergency room when that tidal wave of venomous hatred hit her.

That was witness tampering on a scale never seen before, and had the effect of intimidating anyone else who might dare to take the stand on Jodi’s behalf. Two witnesses did, in fact, decline to take the stand during the mitigation phase, citing intimidation. We would be surprised if the defense team hasn’t encountered this same obstacle while trying to prepare their case for this upcoming re-trial.

The judge was aware of all of this. It was all over the news, after all, and Judge Stephens had meetings in chambers about it. It should have been grounds for an immediate mistrial, but the trial proceeded. Now Jodi Arias stands convicted of first degree murder and may face the death penalty.

We hope you will agree that this precedent cannot be allowed to stand. Social media cannot be allowed to corrupt the judicial process as it has in this case. Jodi has the same rights as you and I to a FAIR trial. But at this point, she needs a good appellate attorney to secure the fair trial she was denied the first time around.

This conviction stands, with very limited sentencing options: life or death. All that is left is a retrial of the penalty phase. If they say “death”, the state is obligated to fund her appeals through the public defenders office, if there is not already an appellate attorney retained to take over. If she is sentenced to life in prison, the state is not obliged to fund her appeals. Either way, it would be prudent and preferable to have a GOOD attorney retained and ready to hit the ground running as soon as the court hands down a sentence.

Arias’ family has set up a trust fund to finance Jodi’s appeals. We hope you might see fit to contribute to the cause.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Watch the video below from Jodi’s parents – Bill & Sandy Arias:

[embedit snippet=”j4j-movie-bill-sandy-arias”]

1 - Justice 4 Jodi - The JAA Appellate Fund Website. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thank you in advance for your support.

WE ARE TEAM JODI – AND WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS in our quest for JUSTICE FOR JODI!

Never question it.

Never doubt it.

Prepare for it.

SJ
Team Jodi

If you would like to help Jodi by way of a financial donation to the official JAA APPELLATE FUND, click the Team Jodi link below for further details. All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund for assisting with the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction. Justice4Jodi.com is the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

We Are Team Jodi ---- And We Will Be Victorious!.

14 Comments

  1. I had the priviledge to watch this first, immediately after it was finished.

    All I can say is that I could not be more proud of Pandora and Journee- they have proven what being loyal to a Cause means and this small projects also proves what great things can comeout of team work.

    Thank you ladies!

    ((((((((( TEAM JODI ))))))))))

    Everybody SHARE SHARE SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. A few technical issues came up and some comments from our friends unfortunately couldn’t be saved. Please be free to repost.

    Sorry for the inconvenience.

    Regards,
    RASNA – TEAM JODI

  3. Journee really put all her effort in this. If it wasn’t for her text, there would be no video. So, I personally would like to congratulate Journee for her excellent work!

    I would also like to give credit to the rest of our friends that helped us with text corrections and additional wording.

    I personally would like to thank my friend Maria for helping me out with the photo’s that were collected and the music!

    Finally, if it wasn’t for SJ, all this would not be possible! SJ, worked behind the scenes: converting a powerpoint into a video, putting it in the site, making a seperate page for it and getting it up in youtube too.

    So, yes! It was team work! A TEAM JODI project!

    (((((TEAM JODI)))) ♥
    ((((Journee)))) ♥
    ((((All friends that helped out))))) ♥
    ((((Maria)))) ♥
    ((((SJ)))) ♥

    ((((Jodi)))) ♥

  4. I enjoyed this video, it as well done! There are a lot of people working behind the scenes in support of Jodi Arias and they are all doing a great job!

  5. thank you finally somebody saying something, I hope this helps finally the truth it will be out, it’s a shame to call is American, cause we supposed to defend the Constitution, and the right to freedom of

    of speech, so what the media has done and all the people that are so haters, they need to hear the truth, Jodi is innocent, she fought for her life, it was either him or her, people need to listen to that to domestic violence, its true and it’s here
    Ps. we all love you we have to pray for you love and kisses,

  6. Thank you all who put their time and effort into making this video. It truly shows what Jodi’s supporters have been saying all along. Please share this video everywhere.

  7. The Alexanders could take notes from this Mother about forgiveness. I suppose their religion doesn’t support such forgiveness. Hmmmmmm This was on MSN Homepage.

    Florida mother’s forgiveness spares daughter’s killer from prison

    Martha Guzman-DeJesus, mother of the teen who was accidentally shot and killed on a school bus, looks at defendant Jordyn Howe after hugging him on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Landov: Miami Herald, MCT
    Martha Guzman-DeJesus, mother of the teen who was accidentally shot and killed on a school bus, looks at defendant Jordyn Howe after hugging him on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Reuters 2 hr ago | By Zachary Fagenson of Reuters

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    MIAMI (Reuters) – In a powerful act of forgiveness, the mother of a girl who died after being shot on a school bus hugged the teen shooter after a plea deal was agreed that he would become an advocate against gun violence rather than be sent to prison.

    “It is our hope that … he will join me in going from school to school; from child to child; from parent to parent; from teacher to teacher urging them to understand how dangerous guns are in the hands of children,” the victim’s mother, Martha Guzman-DeJesus, said in a statement read out in court during a plea hearing on Tuesday.

    Jordyn Howe, 16, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a deadly weapon and two other charges. He was facing 22 months in prison for the accidental shooting of then 13-year-old Lourdes “Jina” Guzman-DeJesus.

    “I’m sorry for her loss and I apologize for doing what I did,” Howe said before embracing Guzman-DeJesus in a tearful hug in court.

    The plea resulted from a month of meetings between lawyers, the victim’s mother, prosecutors and Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer. Howe was ordered to spend a year in a Florida juvenile detention center, followed by supervision until he turns 21.

    As part of the agreement he will tour the state with Guzman-DeJesus a dozen times a year to speak out against gun violence. Should he not live up to the conditions of the agreement, it states he’ll be sent to prison to serve the full 22-month term.

    During a series of painful meetings, “the consensus was this was a kid who was truly is regretful about having brought the gun to school, a kid who had a relationship with Jina,” said Ron Book, a high profile Florida lobbyist and victim advocate who is also Guzman-DeJesus’s attorney.

    Before the 2012 shooting, Howe brought his stepfather’s unloaded pistol to school several times to show friends after he found it wrapped in a towel on a high shelf in his home, Book said.

    The day of the incident, as the gun was being passed around on the school bus, Howe aimed it at the floor, he said. It did not discharge, and he later pointed it at Guzman-DeJesus, hitting her in the neck.

    She was rushed to a hospital where doctors pronounced her dead. Her father, who Book said served time in county jail but was rejoining her daughter’s life, committed suicide two weeks later.

    (Editing by David Adams and Gunna Dickson)

    • This is how it is supposed to work and I think God is being very tolerant with some giving them lots of chances to learn the lesson of forgiveness.

      There is a true story about a Jewish woman whose child was killed by a Palistinian bomb and she was asked about revenge and she said that no true mother would want another mother to feel the loss of a child. She forgave her child’s killer.

  8. Journee and Pandora:

    The phrases you have attempted to highlight in your video/slide show are coming out black on your grey background and are unreadable (in both IE and Chrome browsers). Maybe its Windows, but you should check your font colors if you want it readable. Other than that, I like the sound.

  9. Journee & Pandora:

    By the way, your summary/writeup is about the best description and writing I have seen on this sight or anywhere else for that matter. Thanks.

Comments are closed.