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Lately, several women and officers have congratulated me for trying to get a new trial. But I’m not trying for that, and I was thrown by these congratulations. I would never want to publicly relive my worst moments, my worst trauma, my worst grief. Nobody would want that for themselves.
The people who approached me said they heard it on the news, which I don’t watch. One person told me the TV said I was getting another mitigation hearing. (Huh?) Leave it to the news to get it all wrong.
The recent spate of inaccurate reporting can be traced to a single journalist who attended my court hearing on the 28th of August, a hearing that did not involve my seeking another trial. But that’s what he wrote, and worse, it was even in his headline.
Here’s what’s actually happening: I’m filing a PCR brief next January, not to go back to trial, but to gain relief from a sentence that is entirely inappropriate. I should not serve the rest of my life in prison after suffering the violence of a man I loved and trusted. No one should.
In my particular case, I was not only abused by the person who died, but then I was abused and exploited by a defense attorney (ineffective assistance of counsel), and I was abused and exploited by the State of Arizona (prosecutorial misconduct).
Relief from such an enormous and inhumane sentence is a legal possibility. Another legal possibility: my case could (should) be thrown out with prejudice, which means I could never be retried. I wouldn’t be a felon. I would go back to a life of freedom, but not back to my life. That life is gone.
PCR could lead to another trial. That is also a legal possibility, and the worst one (except for no relief at all). But a trial isn’t necessary to resolve the case. The State doesn’t need to put me, and all the people the case affected, through that again.
I don’t enjoy writing about this topic. But in the past, I stayed silent while the media sensationalized my personal life, twisted facts of the case, and tried to invalidate the trauma and abuse I suffered, all while chanting for my death. The misogyny was staggering.
Sometimes, members of the media were not so flagrant; they were simply wrong. I see the rumblings of this same pattern starting up again when I read a misleading headline like that of the above-mentioned journalist. Maybe he rushed his article so he could get paid, but it seems that neither he nor his editor prioritized getting it right for their readers.
If the State of Arizona were to insist on a third trial because its bloodlust for me remains unsated, then I hope my attorneys can change its mind, help it see reason, and clear the vengeance clouding its vision. And if my attorneys can’t change it, if I’m hauled back into the arena, an unwilling participant, then I will be forced to fight for my life again with everything I’ve got.
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SJ
Team Jodi #WINNING <<<
Click the banner below to read Jade’s post – “Justice Denied: Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State’s Case Against Jodi Arias.”:







