Arias’ penalty phase retrial won’t start March 17
Feb 11, 2014, 7:36 PM | Updated: Feb 12, 2014, 9:38 am
PHOENIX — A retrial to decide whether convicted murderer Jodi Arias is sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty has been pushed back from March 17.
The delay is being caused by a scheduling conflict for the prosecutor.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez is supposed to begin another potential death penalty trial on May 12.
In a hearing Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court, Presiding Criminal Judge Joseph Welty ruled the trial of a man accused of killing a Phoenix-area police officer in 2007 will go first. It’s the oldest capital murder case in the county awaiting trial.
Welty left the rescheduling of Arias’ penalty phase retrial to Judge Sherry Stephens.
The 33-year-old Arias was convicted last May of killing her boyfriend at his suburban Phoenix home in 2008, but the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on her sentence.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
