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Jodi News Update #105 – August 2021

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Here’s the latest Jodi News Update (#105) for August 2021:

Late last month, Jodi was uprooted from her assigned room and moved to a different area of Lumley Unit. At first, the staff were evasive about the reasons she had to move, but later, several staff members revealed that they were briefed about a guy who had been making threats to break Jodi out of Perryville, and who had actually begun driving to Arizona from the east coast to carry out his moronic plan.

This moron, who will remain unnamed here, was already known to the staff at Perryville. Since last spring, his photo has been posted at the front entrance where staff enter the prison for work. With it was a warning to look out for this asshole should he be spotted anywhere on the premises.

So what changed? According to one corrections officer, late last month, Mr. Moron was pulled over somewhere east of the Mississippi because he had been driving erratically. He admitted to the police officer who pulled him over that he had been lost for two days and was trying to get to Arizona where he was going to “rescue Jodi Arias.” However that strange conversation must have proceeded, the police officer was concerned enough that he or she reported this information and, through the appropriate channels, the Arizona Department of Corrections was informed.

It was because of this tip that the prison decided that this guy may in fact be more unstable than was previously estimated. What had been treated as a mild threat and a warning about a random person had suddenly been elevated because of this person’s decision to act upon his fantasy of rescuing damsel Jodi so they could live happily ever after in non-reality.

Jodi, in her Perryville bubble, remained unaware of these developments until one afternoon while at work in the Lumley Library, two Sergeants informed her that, per the Major (the Warden’s right hand person) she had to move. They weren’t allowed to tell her why. But as the following days unfolded, she learned that because the yard on which she was housed had a direct view to Perryville’s ungated parking lot, this was cause for concern. Also, the yard to which she was moved has an extra razor-wire perimeter fence, providing a little extra security.

She had a difficult time adjusting. On her previous yard, Jodi had settled into a quiet routine of schoolwork, library work, and nursing sapling palm trees. She even had a sometime pet pigeon named April who would land on her hand if Jodi bribed her with sunflower kernels. She also had a decent roommate. But she had to leave all of it.

One tradeoff that Jodi doesn’t hate: Her new room has air conditioning. Thousands of women are housed at Perryville, but many of them are forced to suffer the dangerous summer heat because the Arizona Department of Corrections will not invest in converting all housing units’ wimpy swamp coolers to more efficient air conditioning.

While it seems preposterous that one guy should be cause for concern — a guy who is so out of touch with reality that he actually believes he can bust Jodi out of there and they’ll be blissfully wedded spouses — the Department isn’t taking any chances. Earlier this year, two men escaped from a different facility in Arizona, causing the Department national public embarrassment.

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NEW MATCHING FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN FOR JODI’S LEGAL FIGHT!

We are pleased to announce that an anonymous donor has pledged to match all donations made to the JAA Appellate Fund at Justice4Jodi.com, dollar for dollar, up to $35,000! Any amount you donate between now and the end of the year will be DOUBLED. The goal is to raise $70,000 by year’s end. Doing so will place Jodi within reach of being able to obtain legal counsel after the standard petitions funded by the state are concluded.

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Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Jodi News Update #104 – May 2021

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Here’s the latest Jodi News Update (#104) for May 2021:

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Members of the U.S. Military are onsite at Perryville this week administering the Moderna vaccine to anyone who wants to be vaccinated.

Inmates housed on Lumley Unit, including Jodi, received theirs this morning. The military rolled onto the Perryville complex earlier this week with a truckload of vaccines (thanks to the joint efforts of the current and former presidencies), and has been administering them to the thousands of women housed there.

Late last month, vaccinations began at Perryville for the inmate population 55 years and older. Their second dose was administered this week. Everyone below that age group is now being offered their first dose.

Receiving the vaccine is optional, but most women on Lumley Unit are choosing to be vaccinated both for their health and with the hope that visitation will soon reopen so that mothers who haven’t held their children in over a year can finally do so.

The Arizona Department of Corrections has also used the pandemic as an excuse to prevent attorneys for the ACLU and other organizations that focus on civil rights abuses from entering and inspecting its state prisons. With the advent of population-wide immunity, many people are hopeful for a return to normalcy.

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NEW MATCHING FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN FOR JODI’S LEGAL FIGHT!

We are pleased to announce that an anonymous donor has pledged to match all donations made to the JAA Appellate Fund at Justice4Jodi.com, dollar for dollar, up to $35,000! Any amount you donate between now and the end of the year will be DOUBLED. The goal is to raise $70,000 by year’s end. Doing so will place Jodi within reach of being able to obtain legal counsel after the standard petitions funded by the state are concluded.

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Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Jodi News Update #103 – April 2021

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Here’s the latest Jodi News Update (#103) for April 2021:

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NEW MATCHING FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN FOR JODI’S LEGAL FIGHT!

We are pleased to announce that an anonymous donor has pledged to match all donations made to the JAA Appellate Fund at Justice4Jodi.com, dollar for dollar, up to $35,000! Any amount you donate between now and the end of the year will be DOUBLED. The goal is to raise $70,000 by year’s end. Doing so will place Jodi within reach of being able to obtain legal counsel after the standard petitions funded by the state are concluded.

Jodi’s case has now entered a new phase in the fight to overturn her wrongful conviction: Post-Conviction Relief (PCR). She was recently appointed new counsel who will need to spend untold hours familiarizing themselves with this complex case, which is riddled with corruption by the state, gaps in due process, and unprecedented occurrences such as the disbarment of both the prosecutor and the lead defense attorney.

The Arizona Court of Appeals found pervasive misconduct by the prosecution and issued a scathing review of its handling of Jodi’s case. Despite this court’s abject disgust of the prosecutor, it failed to throw out her conviction. Jodi’s public defenders petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals’s decision, but this higher court declined to do so.

[Of note is the fact that one of the seats on the AZ Supreme Court is held by Bill Montgomery, the same guy who:

1. Was in charge of the prosecutor’s office during both times Jodi went to trial

2. Refused to give up the pursuit of having Jodi killed via the death penalty

3. Has publicly commented about Jodi’s case

4. Allowed his pet prosecutor to violate ethical rules by publishing a book about the case

5. Was the subject of a now-dismissed bar complaint filed by Jodi’s lawyers for reasons in the above number four.

Yes, this guy sits on the AZ Supreme Court. As you can see, prosecutorial misconduct isn’t the only thing pervasive and persistent in Arizona. The “Ol’ Boys’ Club” protecting such corruption has its tentacles in the state’s highest court.]

Jodi’s PCR lawyers will be asking the same judge who sat through both trials to make an impartial determination that Jodi didn’t get a fair trial. Although this is obvious to everyone, including the Court of Appeals, what Superior Court judge — an elected official employed because voters said so — is going to admit that a miscarriage of justice occurred in her own courtroom on her watch?

It’s ridiculous and almost unfair to ask her to admit such. But not as ridiculous as the trials Jodi was forced to endure, and not as unfair as how Jodi was chewed up and spit out by the so-called justice system. After the PCR petition is filed, even if the trial judge agrees to hear argument, this doesn’t mean she will agree to do the right thing by overturning the draconian sentence she dealt Jodi in the first place.

So we press on in our fight to get her conviction overturned and thrown out! Now is the time to donate because your dollar will be doubled. PCR is the last stage of taxpayer-funded recourse that Jodi has. Afterwards, she must pay for her own lawyers to guide her case through the labyrinthine federal circuit. And that’s the main reason the JAA Appellate Fund exists: to raise money to retain a lawyer so that when the time comes, Jodi can afford the justice she has long been denied.

Please go to Justice4Jodi.com to make a donation today.

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FUND UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $101,375.94 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

As always, be sure to leave your thoughts & comments below.

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Jodi News Update #102 – Feb 2021

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Here’s the latest Jodi News Update (#102) for February 2021:

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Last month, an outside kitchen worker employed by the prison tested positive for COVID-19, exposing several inmates on Jodi’s unit and necessitating a two-week quarantine. (All the women residing on that unit are now OK.) Jodi said, “Everyone was put on a giant time out.” Much like the rest of the world, only essential inmate workers reported to their jobs. Jodi utilized the gift of free time by reading — a lot. One of her 2021 goals is to read all the books in her possession and donate them to the prison. She donates nearly all the books she receives after reading them, but she fell behind and accumulated too many. “I’ve been focusing on reducing the number of books in my tiny room.” Next week, she’ll be donating her eighth book since the new year commenced.

We Are Team Jodi!

On Friday, January 29th, extra prison staff combed through the unit and confiscated everyone’s acrylic paints. Rumors had been circulating for months that Perryville’s “new” Warden hated arts and crafts and didn’t want inmates making anything beautiful. The several previous Wardens of Perryville had been more supportive of rehabilitating inmates through productive activities and creative programs. After years of that quality of leadership, Jodi says, “It was a little unusual to us that someone of that rank would hold such a narrow view, so many of us disregarded the rumor.”

Whether true or not, in mid-January, two men escaped a maximum-facility prison near Florence, Arizona, setting off a manhunt across the region that ended in their apprehension. The escapees appeared to have used industrial acrylic paint — the same used by Arizona prisons via cheap inmate labor to paint their buildings — to cover their orange pants and transform them into stiff new “khakis.” (A few years ago, Perryville was coated with this same shade, covering all the buildings’ dull gray with a new drab beige.)

The men who escaped did not use the watery, elementary-grade, nontoxic, water-based paint sold on the inmate commissary in small two-ounce bottles of primary colors. If these guys used paint it was the same paint procured by the prison to beige-wash all its buildings. Somehow, they would have gained access to the large quantity required to sufficiently cover the orange material of their pants.

The Department is using its own blunder as an excuse to eliminate from its prisons arts and crafts, a proven method of therapy and rehabilitation. Art can be an integral part of rehabilitating men and women scheduled to reenter society. So this backward move may have long-reaching negative effects on both inmates and the Arizona communities into which these people will eventually reintegrate. The Department should confiscate from itself its own paint, its own “escape paraphernalia” made available to those men, and hold itself to account for its lapse in security instead of taking away a time-tested, tried-and-true vehicle for rehabilitation and reduction of recidivism.

Ironically, The Arizona Department of Corrections recently rebranded itself “The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry” (ADCRR) in an attempt to rehab its image. Yet the steps it has taken in this situation are in a direction opposite of what its name suggests. This anti-progress is in the name of “security.” It has capriciously contrabanded harmless art supplies that were never used by the escapees instead of focusing on fixing the real security issue: Inmates managed to breach the prison’s many fences, razor wire, and thinly-populated staff. (The latter is another issue for another time.)

Jodi loves to paint, but due to her circumstances, has not always been able. She has always turned to other media to continue creating. The few acrylic paintings that remain with her family have by virtue of the above developments increased in value, but at this time she does not intend to sell them. She will, however, post them soon for display. For now, it is literally back to the drawing board for Jodi as she plans her next piece of art using pens and pencils. (Click the pic below to visit the Jodi Arias Art Gallery.)

art by jodi arias
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FUND UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $100,770.94 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

As always, be sure to leave your thoughts & comments below.

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

8th Anniversary, Merry Christmas + a Jodi News Update!

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With over 10 million page views & well over 6 million visitors — yesterday, December 20th 2020, marked the official 8th anniversary of the launch of our Jodi Arias Is Innocent .com website.

So with Christmas just a few days away – I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support over the past 8 years – and thank you in advance for your continued support moving forwards through 2021 and beyond.

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So how did 2020 shake out for Jodi? In many ways, this year was a boom.

Here’s why…

The crooked creep who crucified her at trial, ex-“prosecutor” Juan Martinez, was fired from his job for treating his workplace like a virtual Tinder app. But all the single ladies – and some married ones – kept swiping left on his ugly mug. At just over five feet, Juan is a shot glass full of slime that the women in his office were forced to choke down for years. Unaware of his own extraordinary undesirability, his personnel file is peppered with complaints of his unwanted leering. Yet his male higher-ups protected him instead of the women in their employ.

All of that came to a grandiose halt last spring when he was finally canned. Then in July, he surrendered his law license. Sensing the above dirty shenanigans coming into full view at a trial, Juan decided to take the coward’s way out.

It begs the question: What horrors of behavior is he hiding? The world witnessed as this man-child wasted the court’s time by gnawing like a senescent pit bull on even pointless details during Jodi’s trial. What is so juicy in that musty closet of his that he would willingly surrender his license rather than fight for it in his favorite arena? Well, good riddance!

Thanks to many generous donors, Jodi was able to pay her legal bill associated with the above mess. She was informed of everyone who contributed and she wants you each to know how very grateful she is to you. She would not have been able to realize the above legal milestones without YOUR direct help.

Over the last five years, Jodi has worked diligently to pay the restitution she owed, stretching herself to pay down approximately $10,000. Then a few months ago, along came an angel donor who paid the remaining balance, rescuing Jodi from over a decade of further payments, and bestowing TA’s family with a fat, unexpected Christmas bonus.

Contact visitation was suspended in Arizona prisons last March due to the coronavirus pandemic. At a men’s prison in Yuma, Arizona, a huge outbreak was reported with over 400 cases, including the Warden, who was recently felled by the virus. While there have been a few inmates who have tested positive at Perryville, the women’s prison, they have all been on other units and no significant outbreak has occurred. Lumley Unit, where Jodi resides, has remained healthy and free of the virus.

Jodi spends a lot of her time reading and creating art. She is excited to begin the next book in her queue, Memoirs and Misinformation, by Jim Carrey (yes, that Jim Carrey!) of whom she is an adoring fan.

Her latest works, Partington Cove and Black-Ink Butterfly, can be viewed at ArtByJodiArias.com. Also, this final quarter of the year, she completed her first work of Impressionism in acrylic, titled The Clearing, but due to several delays, she was unable to get it on display before the year is to close. (Perhaps January!)

Another thing Jodi has been doing with her time is studying Italian, which she calls “deceptively easy” because of its similarity to the Spanish she speaks fluently. She breeezes through each lesson, immediately grasping the material, only to later discover that she didn’t retain much. Still, she is pressing ahead with lessons in what she calls “this gorgeous language.”

And finally…

What’s next in Jodi’s fight for justice? An all-important phase called PCR (Post-Conviction Relief), also known in Arizona as Rule 32. This is the phase in which her newly assigned counsel will raise issues that her previous appellate counsel could not.

This phase is funded by taxpayers, but afterward Jodi must shoulder all further legal costs. She was recently quoted $2 million — retainer only! — by a dream team lawyer. We are hopeful, however, that we will be able to find someone who will be willing to take her case for the mere fraction (about $100,000, or 1/20th) available in her appellate fund.

Please help her fight this fight by donating at Justice4Jodi.com. Together, we can help Jodi get within reach of great legal representation!

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As always, and to finish off this update, here’s our all-time #1 favorite Jodi-Christmas classic — “O Holy Night.”

Just like me, it never gets old.  Enjoy!

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UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $100,770.94 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

May the peace, beauty and Light of the season brighten your life with joy, blessings and abundance.

I wish you Happy Holidays a Merry Christmas – and a safe, peaceful, prosperous & snowflake-free 2021!

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Juan Martinez – DISBARRED – R.I.P.

Published on

Well… it had to happen sometime – and now it finally has.

Juan Martinez, the pedo-huggers “hero”… and one of the most corrupt “win-at-all-costs” prosecutors ever to disgrace a courtroom… has been officially disbarred.

He’s managed to make a living from lying, witness tampering, evidence tampering & wrongful convictions for many years — but all that stops, right here, right now.

In the big scheme of things, this is awesome news.

Juan Martinez — R.I.P.

You’ll need a proxy/VPN to access the AZFamily.com website if you’re outside the US, so the full article has been reproduced below.

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From AZFamily.com, July 17th:

Jodi Arias’ prosecutor Juan Martinez has been disbarred

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS5) — The lawyer best known for prosecuting in the Jodi Arias trial has been disbarred. Juan Martinez was fired from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office earlier this year amid a number of misconduct allegations.

Martinez was accused of leaking a juror’s name in the Arias case to a blogger with whom he was in a sexual relationship, and then lying to investigators about it. Martinez is also accused of staring at a court reporter during the Arias trial and making comments about her appearance that made her feel uncomfortable.

“In my opinion this is long overdue. His misconduct goes back years,” said Karen Clark, Arias’ legal ethics attorney.

A law firm also filed an ethics complaint, claiming Martinez wrote a book about the Arias case while the trial was still going on. They also say he wrote the book on County time and at taxpayers’ expense. Martinez was reprimanded by the county prosecutor’s office in 2018 for inappropriate and unprofessional conduct toward female law clerks.

“The Jody Arias case was a very high profile trial and the allegations in these bar charges involved things that were going on behind the scenes that the public did not know about,” said Clark.

“Wouldn’t be surprised to see claims filed by people in prison saying their cases were barred by his misconduct,” said lawyer Dan Barr.

The State Bar of Arizona released the following statement:

“The Presiding Disciplinary Judge of the Arizona Supreme Court has issued an order accepting a consent to disbarment for Juan Martinez.

Martinez filed a consent to disbarment in the pending discipline case of In re: Juan Martinez, PDJ 2019-9008. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge accepted his consent and issued an order disbarring him, effective immediately. This judgment of disbarment effectively ends the pending discipline case against him.

Juan Martinez filed the consent to disbarment pursuant to Rule 57, Ariz. R. Sup. Ct., which allows him to consent to disbarment without making any admission of misconduct; rather he confirms that he no longer wants to defend against the charges.

The State Bar believes this is a just outcome and appreciates the time and effort of both the State Bar lawyers and staff who litigated this case, particularly Senior Bar Counsel Craig Henley and Staff Bar Counsel Stacy Shuman, as well as the witnesses involved in the underlying charge.”

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UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $101,432.90 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

As always, be sure to leave your thoughts & comments below…

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

The State v. Jodi Arias… and Juan Martinez

Published on

Due to AZ Mirror website access being blocked for non-US readers, Michael Kiefer’s full article has been reproduced below:

  • Click here to read the Opinion Document (29 pages)
  • Click here to read the Decision Document (16 pages)

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From The AZ Mirror, March 27th:

The State of Arizona v. Jodi Arias … and Juan Martinez

The case caption said, “State of Arizona v. Jodi Ann Arias,” but it might just as well have said “State of Arizona v. Juan M. Martinez.”

Not surprisingly, the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld Arias’s conviction and life sentence for the brutal 2008 murder of her sometime lover, Travis Alexander.

In her appeal, Arias alleged that she had been denied a fair trial because of the circus-like atmosphere in the courtroom and excessive publicity. She also claimed that misconduct by Martinez, the deputy county attorney who led the prosecution, thoroughly tainted the procedure. And she said that Martinez had improperly dismissed potential jurors because they were female, and especially if they had experienced domestic violence.

The three-judge panel dispatched the jury-selection issues in a separate memorandum opinion, meaning it could not be cited as precedent.

Then, in the main opinion, they quickly dispelled the publicity argument, saying that it did not sway the jury.

But what was surprising is the number of pages — 20 out of 29 — devoted to Martinez’s behavior during trial: how he bullied witnesses and Arias herself, suggested that a psychologist had romantic feelings for Arias, appealed to the juror’s passions and fears, and promoted himself by signing autographs on the courthouse steps.

“Prosecutorial misconduct undeniably permeated this case,” Judge Jennifer Campbell wrote for the majority. “Rather than a few isolated missteps, a pattern of intentional misconduct saturated the trial.”

Still, it was not enough to award Arias a new trial. The jury would still have come back with a guilty verdict, the panel concluded.

And in a case where there was “overwhelming evidence of guilt,” Campbell wrote, it was not prudent to “reverse convictions merely to punish a prosecutor’s misdeeds or to deter future misconduct.”

Instead, the panel made the rare decision to refer Martinez to the State Bar of Arizona, the semi-governmental state board that licenses and disciplines attorneys, for possible disciplinary action.

That, in effect, is a Bar complaint, and one that comes from high up the judicial food chain.

In a concurring opinion that almost read like a dissent, Judge Kenton Jones wrote, “Yet, here we are, confronted with a prosecutor whose repeated misconduct toward the superior court, other attorneys, principals, and witnesses in a criminal case was not only abhorrent to the rules of professional conduct — and clearly unnecessary to obtain a conviction — but broadcast over and over again, hour after hour each day, throughout a sixty-seven-day trial and the non-stop hours of nationwide media coverage that followed.“

Jones seemed to question why the Bar hasn’t already dealt with Martinez and his repeated Bar complaints. More on that later.

Arias and Alexander carried on an obsessive and combative sexual relationship for nearly two years. Arias had moved from Arizona to get away from it, but couldn’t stay away. And while ostensibly on a cross-country trip to Salt Lake City, via Monterey, California, and Utah National Parks, she swung down to Mesa for one more tryst with Alexander.

Five days later, Alexander’s decomposing body was found in the shower of his Mesa home.  He had been shot in the head, stabbed 27 times and his throat was slit. Arias admitted killing him, but swore it was in self-defense.

A jury did not believe her, and after a tumultuous live-streamed trial, convicted her of first-degree murder in 2013. But they could not reach a unanimous decision on whether to sentence her to death. Arias went back to trial in 2015, and the second jury deadlocked, as well, resulting in a mandatory natural life sentence for Arias.

I sat through both trials. I interviewed Arias and talked to her on the phone a few times. I know her defense team. I also have known and reported on Martinez for nearly 20 years. I have weathered the ongoing social-media shit storm from all of their obsessed fans and haters.

I have no doubt that Arias killed Alexander. She admitted it. I also don’t doubt she did it in a fit of rage.

Unlike the Court of Appeals panel, I never bought into the circumstantial evidence that Martinez used to prove premeditation. Martinez harped on the fact that she had extra gas cans in her car; so do a lot of Western folks who plan to drive cross country and camp at national parks. She rented a car; hers was a clunker. She dyed her hair; women often do that. 

But you don’t need days and weeks of scheming to allege premeditation. A few minutes of reflection are enough.

Just days before the trial began, Martinez changed the physical facts of the case, switching from a theory that Arias first shot Alexander, then stabbed him and slit his throat to a new theory that she first stabbed him, then slit his throat and then finished him off with a shot. Perhaps just coincidentally, that makes the crime seem colder, crueler, more heinous — aggravating factors that would allow for a death sentence.

Years ago, an Arizona Supreme Court justice told me she never understood why some prosecutors felt they had to exaggerate and embellish in slam-dunk cases.

Juan Martinez stands out in that group.

The case-law language about the court’s refusal to throw out cases to punish a prosecutor in the Arias case was cited to an Arizona Supreme Court opinion, State of Arizona v. Bryan Hulsey. (It actually first appeared in an earlier case.) Hulsey killed a Glendale police officer in 2007 and was sentenced to death. Martinez was the prosecutor.  

The misconduct allegations did not merit reversal, the court ruled. Hulsey was instead granted a new sentencing under case law from another case involving prosecutor misconduct, State of Arizona v. Shawn Lynch.

Lynch was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a man in Scottsdale in 2001. The prosecutor? You guessed it: Juan Martinez. When Lynch appealed his case to the Arizona Supreme Court, he alleged numerous instances of misconduct by Martinez. The justices upheld the sentence and the conviction despite the alleged misconduct.

But then Lynch’s case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the justices there noted that Martinez had told the jury that, if they didn’t sentence Lynch to death, he might get out on parole and kill again. Except there was no parole for first-degree murder in Arizona at the time of Lynch’s sentencing. If the jury had spurned death, Lynch would have been sentenced to natural life in prison with no chance of release. 

The high court threw out the sentence and Lynch died of hepatitis C before he could be retried.

But findings of prosecutor misconduct are not de facto Bar complaints. And the two things are not synonymous, even if they may overlap. Prosecutor misconduct is determined by a judge. Bar complaints are about attorney ethical misconduct, which is determined by the Bar. Prosecutor misconduct refers to actions taken during trial; ethical misconduct relates to how an attorney interacts with clients and judges and other sworn officers of the court.

For example, in a footnote, the opinion in Arias’s appeal referred to a sidebar at Judge Sherry Stephens’s bench during the trial, when Martinez said that if he were married to defense attorney Jennifer Willmott, he would “fucking kill myself.” The appellate court noted that the utterance was not heard by the jury and therefore was not an instance of prosecutor misconduct.

But it was alleged in a Bar complaint as ethical misconduct because it occurred between officers of the court.

Martinez has been the subject of numerous Bar charges since the Arias trial. Several were dismissed, earning Martinez the nickname “Teflon Juan.”  

There are a number pending, including for comparing a Jewish attorney to Hitler; for lying about his sexual affair with a blogger during the Arias trial and about how long he stayed in touch with a juror dismissed from the Arias trial who sent him photos of her naked breasts; and for revealing information about another Arias juror.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees defending Martinez against them. That may end, as the office has moved to fire Martinez – not for prosecutor or ethical misconduct, but for HR misconduct in the #MeToo era.  

Martinez was accused not only of inappropriate approaches to women in his office, but for retaliating after they reported him.

What happens now remains to be seen. If the county legal help is cut off, can Martinez continue to fight the Bar charges? Will he defend himself? Or will he be forced to enter into a disciplinary deal with the Bar?

Nor has Arias reached a dead end. She can still appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court. She can petition the Maricopa County Superior Court for post-conviction relief if she thinks there is new evidence or that her attorney was ineffective. Then it can bounce around the federal courts for decades.  

Consider the notorious case of Debra Milke, who was convicted of having her four-year-old son murdered in 1989 and sentenced to death. After spending 24 years in custody — one year shy of a life sentence — her conviction and sentence were overturned in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because of prosecutorial misconduct. The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that double jeopardy would attach if she were retried. She is free today.

As Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over til it’s over.”

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

UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $99,192.34 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

As always, be sure to leave your thoughts & comments below…

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Martinez Sacked

Published on

*** CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY @ FOX 10 PHOENIX ***

Following the investigation of countless allegations of sexual harassment in 2017 — including the interviewing of 30 employees — the wheels on the bus have finally come off for the pedo-huggers favorite prosecutor.

Here’s the story from Fox 10 Phoenix, Feb 14th:

Juan Martinez, prosecutor noted for role in Jodi Arias trial, has been fired.

PHOENIX – FOX 10 has learned that Juan Martinez, a prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office who gained national notoriety after getting a guilty verdict in the Jodi Arias trial, has been dismissed from his position.

10-28 retrial - more non-sensical BS from kermit

In early February, officials with MCAO say Martinez was placed on paid administrative leave.

At the time, officials did not provide any further information surrounding the decision, citing a personnel matter and only saying Martinez was placed on leave, on February 7.

On Friday, FOX 10 obtained documents surrounding the dismissal, which shed new light on what happened. On the same day Martinez was placed on paid administrative leave, county officials sent to Martinez, via hand delivery, a Notice of Intent to Dismiss.

The letter detailed a number of alleged violations of the Maricopa County Employee Merit System Resolution, including discourteous treatment of the public or fellow employees, violation of county or departmental policies or procedures in regards to workplace professionalism and prohibition against discrimination, harassment and retaliation, and a Code of Ethics violation.

In the letter, county officials say Martinez’s conduct has created an environment at the county attorney’s office that is now “impossible to manage effectively.”

“For example, we must work to keep you away from those you victimized,” read the letter. “This fact makes it difficult to assign you to bureaus and even your physical location within the building presents challenges. Even if we could isolate you from your victims based on job assignment and work location, it is not possible to prevent contact with your victims.”

*** CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY @ FOX 10 PHOENIX ***

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

UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $99,192.34 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

As always, be sure to leave your thoughts & comments below…

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

Martinez put on administrative leave following investigation

Published on

*** CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY @ AZ-CENTRAL.COM ***

Following the investigation of countless allegations of sexual harassment in 2017 — including the interviewing of 30 employees — the pedo-huggers favorite prosecutor has finally come undone… just like his flies during Jodi’s trial.

Here’s the story from AZ Central, Feb 11th:

“Juan Martinez, a longtime prosecutor of Maricopa County’s highest-profile murder cases, has been placed on paid administrative leave, the County Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday night.

Martinez has faced years of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations.

juan martinez jen wood trial affair ethics complaint

“On Friday, Feb. 7, 2020, Juan Martinez was placed on paid administrative leave. We currently have no further comment on this personnel matter at this time,” according to a statement released by the office.

The announcement comes a few days after the State Bar of Arizona accused Presiding Disciplinary Judge William J. O’Neil of abuse of power because O’Neil decided Martinez would not face ethics charges for sexual harassment allegations by several women at the County Attorney’s Office.

In March 2019, the Bar filed a formal misconduct complaint against Martinez. The complaint claimed Martinez harassed several women who worked at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and the Maricopa County Superior Court. It also accused Martinez of having a relationship with a blogger during the Arias trial.

“The allegations included making inappropriate comments, primarily to law clerks, which were of a sexual nature, engaging in unwanted touching and making persistent unwelcome invitations to go to lunch or on a date,” the state Bar’s formal complaint said.

According to the complaint, Martinez stared and commented on a female court reporter’s appearance while she was working during hearings in the Arias case. She also claimed he would make inappropriate comments…….”

*** CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY @ AZ-CENTRAL.COM ***

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

UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $98,901.95 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.

All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.

In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.

Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.

we are team jodi - and we will be victorious

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

As always, be sure to leave your thoughts & comments below…

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.”:

Read - Justice Denied - Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State's Case Against Jodi Arias

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